36 BULLETIN 393, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
team and driver was about $3 per day. On this basis the cost of | 
hauling per ton-mile on the old roads was approximately $0.30 and 
on the new roads $0.15. A saving of $0.15 per ton-mile on 833,136 
annual ton-miles amounts to $124,970, which would be more than 
sufficient to retire the bonds in one year. 
EFFECT OF ROAD IMPROVEMENT ON SCHOOLS. 
One of the most important results attendant upon the improve- 
ment of the public roads in Dinwiddie County was the increase in 
attendance at the schools located on the improved roads. It was 
ascertained that during the school year 1912-13 the average attend- 
ance at 13 schools on the improved roads was 63.4 per cent of the total 
enrollment, and that the average attendance at all other rural schools 
in the county for the same year was 56 per cent. If the improved 
roads serve no other purpose than to equip with an adequate primary 
education 7 or 8 additional children each year out of each 100 enrolled 
the building of the roads would be justified. 
Not only was the county school system affected through increased 
attendance, but also through the erection of larger school buildings 
(see Pl. XI, fig. 1) and the consolidation of small schools, while a 
particularly striking feature of the present school system is the trans- 
portation of the children to and from school. In 1914 several school 
wagons were in use, at an expense of about $306 per annum for the 
operation of each wagon with a capacity of 20 passengers. (See PI. 
XI, fig. 2.) About one-eighth of the children who attend school at 
Petersburg live in the surrounding country districts, some of them 
as far as 6 or 8 miles from town. 
LEE COUNTY, VA. 
Road improvement began in Lee County in 1908 through the con- 
- struction of a road between Jonesville and ‘Ben Hur, a distance of 5.6 
miles. This, the first improved road in the county, was completed in 
1910. The nee was carried on under the qaeeuen of a resident 
engineer from the State highway department, labor was performed 
by State convicts, and the funds were raised by private subscription. 
The average cost of the road was $4,203.68 per mile. Convict labor 
was furnished by the State to the extent of 10,035 convict working 
days, at a cost of 67 cents per day. The road was graded to a width 
of 30 feet, surfaced with macadam to a width of 12 feet, and a thick- 
ness of 6 to 7 inches consolidated. 
The road served as a most successful object lesson to the people of 
the county, and the result was the voting of $364,000 of bonds on 
November 29, 1910, for the purpose of improving approximately 
165.5 miles of road. 
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