ECONOMIC SURVEYS OF COUNTY HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT. 9 
A comparison of the effect of the road improvement upon country. 
schools affords probably a more complete vindication of the outlay 
than even the material features which have been presented. Com- 
bining the results obtained in all of the eight counties, it appears that 
before the roads were improved the average school attendance was 66 
pupils of each 100 enrolled, as compared with 76 after the roads were 
improved. A consideration of this showing must reveal the fact that 
the good roads have been materially responsible for the education 
of 10 children out of each hundred. As the struggle for existence 
becomes keener in the years that are yet before us, the educational 
training which the children receive in the country schools will make 
itself felt more and more in the material and moral success of the man 
and woman. Not only have the roads contributed toward a larger 
school attendance, but they have been quite instrumental in lifting 
the standard of instruction by making easier the consolidation of little 
one-room schools into graded schools. In Dinwiddie County the sys- 
tem of taking the children to and from school by means of wagons 
has been adopted since the roads were improved. (See Pl. XI, fig. 2.) 
Taking it from all of these angles, the experience of the eight coun- 
ties has demonstrated that the beneficial effects of the road improve- 
ment justified the outlay, and that while more efficiency and economy 
might have been obtamed in some cases, the loss was not such as to 
make the citizens of any of the counties feel that the move for better 
roads had been an unwise one. (See Tables 2 and 3.) 
TABLE 2.—Road mileage. - 
Surfaced. 
eee ei Eo | Graded | Total 
otal o under | grade 
State and county. all roads. ee Jnder bond | orsur- 
ara) glee bend Total. | issue. faced. 
; issue. 
Virginia: : Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles. 
Spotsylvania ADP ag ASRS ODO OESe Danaea a 400 0. 97 176.73 82. 73 0 82. 73 
IW CIOs ee = Saas Se oS ee ee 524 1.01 291.3 101. 06 0 101. 06 
THORNS 532 SS se Sor ee ene eee 450 1.00 1 39, 26 44, 86 160.19 105. 05 
VAR Geer etree SNe 300 afal 78.47 83. 07 62.75 145. 82 
ING WaVOrke: Prank in 2202 5 SSS 1,370 . 82 124.0 386. 8 0 368. 8 
Mabhaniass wallace ao Jie Ss Peet GH. 1, 000 1.04 101. 75 217.9 0 217.9 © 
~Mississippi: Lauderdale....-..... See eee 800 1.16 96. 75 146. 75 0 146. 75 
MlOrida= Manaleezwes= oe ok eee S 575 43 57. 25 57. 25 6.4 63. 68 
1 Built partly with State convicts. 2 Built entirely with State convicts. 
