ECOISTOMIC SURVEYS OF COUNTY HIGHWAY IMPEOVEMEN-T. 



9 



A comparison of the effect of the road improvement upon country 

 schools affords probably a more complete vindication of the outlay 

 than even the material features which have been presented. Com- 

 bining the results obtained in aU of the eight counties, it appears that 

 before the roads were improved the average school attendance was 66 

 pupUs of each 100 enrolled, as compared with 76 after the roads were 

 improved. A consideration of this showing must reveal the fact that 

 the good roads have been materially responsible for the education 

 of 10 children out of each hundred. As the struggle for existence 

 becomes keener in the years that are yet before us, the educational 

 training which the children receive in the country schools will make 

 itself felt more and more in the material and moral success of the man 

 and woman. Not only have the roads contributed toward a larger 

 school attendance, but they have been quite instrumental in lifting 

 the standard of instruction by making easier the consohdation of httle 

 one-room schools into graded schools. In Dinwiddle County the sys- 

 tem of taking the children to and from school by means of wagons 

 has been adopted since the roads were improved. (See PI. XI, fig. 2.) 



Taking it from all of these angles, the experience of the eight coun- 

 ties has demonstrated that the beneficial effects of the road improve- 

 ment justified the outlay, and that while more efficiency and economy 

 might have been obtained in some cases, the loss was not such as to 

 make the citizens of any of the counties feel that the move for better 

 roads. had been an unwise one. (See Tables 2 and 3.) 



Table 2. — Road mileage. 





Total of 

 all roads. 



Miles of 

 road per 

 square 

 mile of 

 area. 



Surfaced. 



Graded 

 under 

 bond 

 issue. 



Total 

 graded 

 or sur- 

 faced. 



State and county. 



Under 

 bond 

 issue. 



Total. 



Virginia: 



400 

 524 

 450 

 300 

 1,370 

 1,000 

 800 

 575 



0.97 



1.01 



1.00 



.71 



.82 



1.04 



1.16 



.43 



Miles. 



1 76. 73 



2 91.3 



1 39. 26 



78. if 



124.0 



101. 75 



96.75 



57.25 



Miles. 



82.73 

 101. 06 



44.86 



83.07 

 386.8 

 217.9 

 146. 75 



57.25 



Miles. 











1 60. 19 



62.75 















6.4 



Miles. 

 82.73 





101.06 



Lee 



105. 05 



Wise 



145. 82 



New York: Franklin 



368.8 



Alabama: Dallas 



217.9 





146. 75 



Florida: Manatee 



63.65 







1 Built partly with State convicts. 



2 Built entirely with State convicts. 



