Panay yk 
ECONOMIC SURVEYS OF COUNTY HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT. 381 
sists of 5 members, 1 hon each district and 1 from the county at large. 
Previous to 1912 the members of this board were designated by the 
circuit court judge. Since that time the positions ion been elective. 
The salary of the members is $40 per annum each, except the secre- 
tary, who receives $65 per annum. In addition to the salary mem- 
bers receive $2 per day for.inspection, not to exceed $10 per annum 
for each district. The total salaries and expenses of the board are 
therefore about $265 per annum. 
There were 102.5 miles of road designated for improvement in the 
order of election issued by the judge of the circuit court. Namozine 
‘district was to have 30 miles; Rowanty district, 22.5 miles; Sapony 
district, 23 miles; and Darvills district, 27 miles. The work was 
begun on June 16, 1909, and is still im progress. The county has 524 
miles of public road, of which 91.31 miles have been surfaced from 
the bond-issue funds, which, added to the 9.75 miles previously con- 
structed, make 101.06 miles, or 19.3 per cent of the total mileage 
surfaced. (Pl. VIII.) Of the 91.31 miles, 81.1 miles were con- 
structed with the aid of State convicts and 10.2 miles without convicts. 
The 81.1 miles cost $68,490.72 in cash and 67,736.5 convict days. 
The cost of guarding, clothing, and food for convicts was paid by the 
State at an average of $0.5468 per convict working day, or a total of 
$37,038.32. The actual cost to the county was therefore $844 per 
mile, and, including convict labor, the average cost was $1,301.22 
per mile. The total cost of the 10.2 miles built without convicts was 
$17,712.69, or an average of $1,736.53 per mile. 
The roads were graded to an average width of 20 feet and were, 
for the most part, surfaced to a width of from 12 to 14 feet with 
top-soil, selected from near-by fields. The top-soil, which is a kind 
of natural sand-clay or gravel-clay mixture, consisted for the most 
part of clay naturally mixed with coarse sand or fine angular pebbles 
of disintegrated granite. This material is fairly well distributed 
throughout the county and in some cases was contributed free by 
abutting property owners. In other cases, however, it was pur- 
chased at 3 cents per cubic yard. Several sandy roads were treated 
with clay and several clay roads were treated with sand. 
The county now has two surfaced roads radiating from Petersburg,. 
extending entirely across the county. The Boydton Plank Road 
(Pl. VII, fig. 2, and Pl. X, fig. 2), 26.25 miles long, extends through 
the center of the county in a southwesterly ieee along the Sea- 
board Air Line Railroad to the Brunswick County line. The Cox 
Road (PI. IX, fig. 2), 32 miles long, extends through the northern 
_ part of the county in a westerly direction along the Norfolk & Western 
Railroad to the Nottoway County line. The Halifax Road has been 
improved for 3 miles south of Petersburg. The Stage Road has been 
improved for about 8 miles from the Nottoway Bie in a north- 
