EOAD MILEAGE AND REVENUES IN NEW ENGLAND STATES. 1.5 



had 14,406 miles of public road, of which 2,650.63 miles, or 18.40 

 per cent, were reported as surfaced, thus indicating a loss in surfaced 

 mileage for the 5-year period of 1,208.6 miles. The 1914 information 

 was obtained from town officials by the collaborator, and it is believed 

 that it is much more rehable than the figures furnished for 1909, and 

 the difference should therefore not be attributed to any failure on 

 the part of the State or the towns to give adequate attention to the 

 roads. No reports were obtained as to the mileage of graded and 

 drained roads. 



Information showing the total mileage and the mileage surfaced 

 for each town in the State is presented in Table 18. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



Massachusetts has a land area of 8,039 square miles and a popula- 

 tion, according to the 1910 census of 3,366,416. The total mileage 

 of roads outside of cities in 1914 was reported as 18,681.40. The 

 State has a population of 418.8 per square mile of area and 180.2 

 per mile of road, with 2.32 miles of road per square mile of area. 

 Of the population in 1910, only 7.2 per cent, or 241,049, was rural, 

 thus indicating a rural population of 12.90 per mile of road. There 

 are 36 cities, 14 counties, and 317 towns in the State, the towns being 

 poHtical subdivisions of the counties. 



HIGHWAY LAWS. 



There is practically no unincorporated land in Massachusetts. 

 Many of the towns were organized before the State and the repre- 

 sentatives of the towns met and adopted a form of constitution. 

 There were no cities until 1820, when a constitutional amendment 

 was passed authorizing the legislatm'e to give a city charter to towns 

 of more than 12,000 inhabitants. 



AU of the highways within the limits of a city or town were orig- 

 inally under the jurisdiction of the city or town, and had to be built 

 and maintained by them. 



In general, the highways in Massachusetts are divided into three 

 classes, as foUows: State highways, county highways, and city or 

 town ways. The county, city, or town ways are cared for by the 

 municipal authorities, viz, superintendents of streets, road com- 

 missioners, and highway suiweyors. The provisions in cities vary, 

 the jiu-isdiction being sometimes placed in boards of commissioners 

 and sometimes in boards of aldermen. The appropriations for 

 either improvements or repairs are made by the city government or 

 at a town meeting. 



County commissioners, upon proper petition and after due hearing, 

 have authority to lay out new ways or to widen and improve existing 

 ways and order specific repairs, or may make such repairs themselves 



