840 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
that Professor Holmes has charge of that section of the country, and 
Mr. Richardson, who is here, has charge of the prairie country, begin- 
ning with Ohio, and extending west to the Rocky Mountains. Mr, 
James W. Abbott, of Denver, Colo., has charge of the mountain and 
western country, and Mr. J. F. Brown, civil engineer, of Cleveland, 
Ohio, has charge of the other division, and we think, of course, that 
the Northwest has had during the years of General Stone’s adminis- 
tration a pretty fair share of attention, and we think they have made 
great progress, and that they are able to help themselves; and asa 
result of that I have been giving much attention to the Northeast. I 
have given as much as I could to the other sections, but they are very 
large, and it is impossible, as you all know, to get over such great 
territory with the very small number of men that I have had at my 
disposal. I would like to say, when the winter season comes, as it has 
now, we furlough all but two of our outside men. 
The Cuarrman. Do you not use the winter months for lectures and 
institute work? , 
Mr. Dopex. Yes, sir; we do. We furlough the machinery men, 
and we have two expert builders 
The Caairman. Do they not furnish the machinery men with their 
machines ? 
Mr. Dopez. They generally designate the person, but they require 
us to pay his wages. We have less responsibility for the care and 
safety of the machine by having them designate a person whom they 
know to be skillful, and which we might not know. We ‘pay them 
during just the temporary season. If we take a month to build a road 
in Texas, we pay the operator for that month, and then he goes off. 
Mr. Lams. How much road did you assist in building near Rich- 
mond, in Henrico County ? 
Mr. Dover. That was a very small bit. That was done with a 
train—the ‘‘Good Roads Train” went there, and the bad weather 
came on—I think three days out of the six. 
Mr. Lamp. You had a very had time there? 
Mr. Doper. That, I think, was .in the city of Richmond, too, if I 
remember. 
Mr. Lams. Just outside—just in the county of Henrico. 
Mr. Dopee. I think it was. 
Mr. Lams. Did you have an opportunity to examine the roads in 
Henrico County? 
Mr. Doper. Somewhat. I went out one day. 
ear Lams. You must have seen that they had given attention to 
them ? 
Mr. Doper. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Lams. They seem to be studying good roads there? 
Mr. Haucen. You stated a moment ago you were now building 
roads at the small cost of $3,000 a mile; I take it that that is the lowest 
estimate at which a road can be built? 
Mr. Dopeex. Yes, the lowest estimate of that class of road. Itis a 
high class of road, with finished rock surface, and well done. We 
can build a much cheaper road of gravel, and a much cheaper road of 
a mixture of sand and clay. Captain Lamb has referred to the excel- 
ient condition of roads about Richmond. Those were built with a 
mixture of clay and sand. : 
