62 BULLETIN 284, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
(7) Cutting grass and weeds; 
(7) Trimming brush and trees at curves; 
(:) Harrowing and dragging rough or irregular sections; 
(4) Painting guard rails and culvert heads; and 
(m) Posting roads. 
Records are being kept of locality of expenditures, so far as pos- 
sible, by using the county financial records supplemented by private 
notes and the report cards of the patrolmen. A statement of the 
cost per mile of work on each patrol section will be possible in a later 
report, but at the present time only one or two counties have spent 
more than 55 per cent of the allotted funds. 
The condition of the road under maintenance has been good dur- 
ing the entire period up to December 23. At about that time the 
range of temperature in North Carolina and Virginia became such 
as to cause alternate freezing and thawing, and heavy rains caused 
swollen streams throughout the entire territory. These conditions 
at once showed the weak places in the roads. Drainage is prevalently 
insufficient. This is, of course, largely a structural defect that 
ordinary maintenance can not cure. Especially has the need of 
subdrainage been demonstrated. This is almost invariably neglected 
in the region traversed by this road: 
In many sections it has become apparent that the common earth 
road is not adequate to accommodate the prevailing traffic. During 
the best weather and during ordinary summer rains no trouble de- 
velops, but average protracted rains cause the roads to break up 
faster and deeper than maintenance can repair them under the con- 
tinuous stream of traffic. 
Since many of the roads along the route were subjects, not for 
maintenance, but for actual construction, it was necessary, in the 
preliminary estimates, to include the cost of minimum improve- 
ments in all cases where such work was necessary in order to get 
the roads ready for maintenance. This has led to a great deal of 
new construction and much reconstruction and repair in each State 
along the line. The nature of this work has ranged all the way 
from minor bridge and culvert repairs to the expenditure of bond 
issues on systematic new construction. The table shows the amounts 
expended in the various counties in construction under the general 
supervision of the Government engineers detailed to the project. 
One assistant has been almost constantly in the northern section giv- 
ing undivided attention to this work. It is not necessary to itemize 
the various improvements made, further than that they include all 
lines of highway work except hard surfacing. Bridges have been 
relocated and rebuilt or renewed; new roads laid out and graded; 
earth roads have been surfaced with sand-clay or topsoil; grade 
crossings have been eliminated by overpasses, underpasses, or re- 
