ROAD MILEAGE, CENTRAL AND WESTERN STATES. 51 
For the purpose of raising revenue for the construction, maintenance, and repair 
of county roads, bridges, and wharves, the board of county commissioners annually 
levies a tax of not to exceed 4 mills on all taxable property in the county, the proceeds 
going into the general road and bridge fund. There also is levied a tax of not to 
exceed 10 mills on the taxable property in each road district to constitute a district 
road fund. 
County boards of commissioners may issue bonds for road -purposes in an amount 
not to exceed 5 per cent of the taxable valuation of all property in their respective 
counties, when authorized by a three-fifths vote of those voting at an election thereon. 
County and State convicts may be worked upon the public highways, and State 
convicts may also be worked in the preparation of road material. The legislature 
makes appropriations to defray the expenses of equipping and operating quarries for 
the purpose of preparing road materials by convict labor. 
ROAD MILEAGE. 
Washington had, at the close of 1914, 42,428 miles of public roads, of which 4,922.09 
miles, or 11.61 per cent, were surfaced. Of the surfaced roads 502.82 miles were 
macadam, 165.52 miles bituminous macadam, 3,924.48 miles gravel, 83.50 miles sand- 
clay, 26.35 miles brick, 79.42 miles concrete, and 140 miles surfaced with other ma- 
terials. There were also reported 9,450.76 miles of graded and drained earth road. 
The total of public roads reported for 1909 was 34,284 miles, of which 4,520.68 miles, 
or 13.19 per cent, were surfaced, an increase in surfaced roads of 401.41 miles. Infor- 
mation regarding the total and surfaced mileage of roads in each county for the year 
1914 is shown in Table 27. 
REVENUES APPLIED TO ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
The total revenue applied to roads in 1914 amounted to $7,944,717.38. Of this 
$7,128,934.47 was derived from the general tax for State, county, township, and district 
roads, $509,146.50 from county and district road bonds, §261,636.41 from other sources, 
and §45,000 from State appropriations for the maintenance of the State highway depart- 
ment. The above items do not include expenditures for the maintenance of State 
quarries for which the legislature in 1913 appropriated a revolving fund of $200,000. 
Receipts from the licensing and registration of automobiles were not applied to roads 
in 1914. 
The total revenue applied to roads and bridges in 1904 amounted to $1,436,070.19, 
an increase for the 10-year period of $6,508,647.19, or 453.22 per cent. The amounts 
received from general taxation for State, county, and township roads and bridges, and 
other revenue applied to this purpose in 1914 are shown by counties in Table 50. 
ROAD AND BRIDGE BONDS. 
The total county and district road and bridge bonds outstanding on January 1, 1915, 
amounted to $1,555,000, of which $509,146.50 was expended in 1914. In that year 
there was voted $133,274.27 and $35,000 of road and bridge bonds sold. No State 
road bonds have been issued, but $190,000 State bonds were issued in 1911 for the 
construction of a bridge across the Columbia River at Wenatchee. Information 
regarding road and bridge bonds is shown by counties in Table 68. 
WISCONSIN. 1 
Wisconsin has a land area of 55,256 square miles, and a total road mileage of 75,707 
of which 13,399.47 miles, or 17.6 per cent, were surfaced at the close of 1914. 
There is a State highway commission which consists, ex officio, of the State geologist 
and the dean of the engineering college of the State university, and of three other 
i The information for Wisconsin was collected under the direction of this office by A. R. Hirst, State, 
highway engineer, and collaborator of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
