60 BULLETIN 284, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
4, Local labor available for maintenance work is made dissatisfied 
by the constant, unintelligent, and unfavorable criticism of those 
using the road. 3 3 
5. Maintenance continuing over a period of years—the ultimate 
indispensable condition of effective maintenance—is jeopardized by 
the lack of accounti.~ control that prevents spending next year’s cur- 
rent income in this year. : i 
6. The lack of skilled supervision in construction and the effect of 
this in increasing the cost or in making effective maintenance impos- 
sibly expensive are everywhere seen. 
7. The county authorities are commonly opposed to following sug- 
gestions for maintenance that involve tying up road funds in any 
way, such as purchasing materials in advance to store along the road 
for making repairs or maintaining the road surface. 
All of the above matters are quite apart from the customary ex- 
pected difficulties encountered in practical details of maintenance, 
and the elimination of many of these perplexing matters can appar- 
ently only follow some educational propaganda and a general en- 
lightenment of county voters and officials. These troubles are not all 
found in any one county, but no county is entirely free from all. 
These matters will be made the basis for special study, with a view 
to suggesting detailed, effective remedies so far as they can be applied 
under existing conditions and to promoting a better understanding 
of the imperative needs of maintenance to conserve the huge invest- 
ment of public funds being made annually in county road construc- 
tion. 
A total of 681.8 miles is now under the supervision of this office. 
This is about 81.2 per cent of the distance from Petersburg to 
Atlanta and 69.1 per cent of the total distance from Washington to 
Atlanta on the selected route. A large number of companion photo- 
graphs have been taken showing the condition of this road at the 
time the Government supervision commenced, and again after im- 
provement. 
Table I shows the distribution of mileage in the several counties, 
the mileage under patrol squads or gangs, and the amounts expended 
for maintenance and construction. All the work is cooperative and 
the counties which are participating in the plan first signified their 
concurrence in the project by adopting and recording a resolution 
establishing the legal status of supervision by the Government. The 
counties then made application on a form provided by the office. 
When these were properly executed they were then filed in the Wash- 
ington office. 
