52 BULLETIN 393, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Schools that had’ to close by reason of failure in attendance previous to the build- 
ing of good roads now assist in supporting good consolidated sclools, at which the 
attendance is splendid. 
The 4-room school known as Maple Grove, in the Hurricane Dist, is one of these. 
It supplants three 1-room schools, each of which, without exception almost, failed 
every year to keep up its average. At present there are but two teachers in the con- 
solidated school, but they have an enrollment of 64, with an attendance last month 
(September, 1915), of 59. 
The Duncan Gap School, a 2-room building, supplanting two 1-room schools, is 
doing well, and would not have been possible but for good roads, In my opinion. 
The above schools are in the heart of the country. 
The percentage of population enrolled has increased from about 70 per cent during 
our bad roads to at least 90 per cent for the last year, before compulsory attendance 
was enforced, and will be better than that this year, I have no doubt. 
It might be well to add, also, that a number of parents who own automobiles and 
who live in the country districts are now bringing their children into larger towns, 
that they may have the benefit of a strictly graded, well-manned high school. Before 
our good roads this was, of course, absolutely impossible. 
FRANKLIN COUNTY, N. Y. 
In 1910 Franklin County authorized the issue of $500,000 in bonds 
with which to improve certain important roads designated as county 
roads. The county is located in the northeastern part of the State, 
extending from the St. Lawrence River to well within the Adirondack 
Mountains and comprising a land area of 1,678 square miles, or 
1,073,920 acres, of which, in 1910, 18.6 per cent, or 199,824 acres, 
was improved farm land. The topography varies from compara- 
tively level in the north to rolling in the central portion and moun- 
tainous in the south, with an average elevation above sea level of 155 
feet in the north, 800 feet in the central portion, and 1,600 feet in the 
southern portion. Small rivers and creeks are numerous. The soil 
varies from dark vegetable clay loam to light sandy loam. During 
the winter snow generally covers the ground for a period of 3 to 4 
months. The snow roads, when rolled or packed down, are very 
good, and loads weighing 2 tons or more are readily drawn with 2 
horses. A large proportion of the forest products which pass over 
the public roads are hauled on sleds during the winter months. 
The county is well provided with road-building material. There 
are numerous outcroppings of Adirondack gneiss in the southern 
part, of granite and sandstone in -the central, and of dolomite and 
limestone in the northern part. Glacial deposits of granite and 
sandstone bowlders and gravel are everywhere abundant and of 
excellent quality for road-building purposes. 
There are no large cities within the county or in the immediate 
environment. Malone, the county seat and principal town, had a 
population in 1910 of 6,447. The population of the entire county was 
45,717 in 1910, 
