30 BULLETIN 398, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
provision should soon be made or else some relatively heavy taxes 
must be levied at no very distant date. If the necessary tax were 
levied from the outset only 15 cents on the hundred dollars would 
be required, but the longer this is delayed the greater the burden 
ultimately. While this county may make adequate provision in good 
time to care for its bonded indebtedness, the fact must not be over- 
looked that the sinkmg-fund method offers a temptation to keep put- 
ting off the day of reckoning, thus making necessary either the levy- — 
ing of heavy taxes at a time when the people have become accustomed 
to improved roads and a low rate, or, if the heavy taxes are not levied, 
the county must then face the necessity for refunding bonds. In this 
particular county the tax rate for the bonds was 15 cents on the 
hundred dollars in 1911, and the rate was reduced in 1912 to 10 cents 
and has remained at that figure since. The rate was cut down in 
order to provide revenue for a jail and for a steel index file without 
materially increasing the total rate for the county. 
In connection with funds provided from the bond issues aid has 
been granted by the State in the form of convict labor, the State 
paying for guarding, clothing, feeding, and housing the convicts, 
while the county pays for their medical attention. One reason for 
the seemingly slow rate of expenditure of the bond issues by the 
county is the fact that all of the construction work is performed by 
the convict force, and the mileage completed each year is therefore 
limited by the constructive capacity of that force. From June, 1909, 
to September 30, 1915, the State had furnished 67,736.5 convict- 
labor days, which had cost the State an average of $0.5468 per day, 
or about $37,038.32. No money aid was granted by the State, as 
the State does not grant both convict and money aid to the same 
county during the same year. In measuring the results obtained for 
the given outlay it must be borne in mind that these results were not 
obtained by the bond issue alone, but that on the final showing the 
State will have paid nearly one-third of the cost, and, considering 
further that the convict labor is relatively cheaper than free labor, 
much of the credit for low cost of construction must go to the convict- 
labor plan rather than to other phases of the financing or manage- 
ment of the work. 
HOW THE WORK WAS MANAGED. 
The roads were built according to plans and specifications furnished 
by the State highway department and under the immediate direction 
of a superintendent selected by the State highway department and 
paid by the county from the bond-issue funds. The superintendent 
received a salary of from $75 to $100 per month, and reported both 
to the county road board, which has charge of all road work in the 
county, and to the State highway department. The roed board con- 
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