4 BULLETIN 583, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Winn welcomed the opportunity to improve the methods of han- 
dling the convict force and recommended to the board that a cooper- 
ative arrangement be made with the Office of Public Roads and Rural 
Engineering and the United States Public Health Service for the oper- 
ation of a demonstration convict road camp. The board, consisting 
of S. B. Turin an, chairman; T. J. Hightower, jr., vice chairman; 
W. L. Gilbert, W. T. Winn, and J. Oscar Mills, gave its approval to 
the scheme, which was thereupon approved by the State Prison Com- 
mission of Georgia. This action by the Board of County Commis- 
sioners indicated their earnest desire to improve the condition of the 
county convict forces and their intelligent appreciation of the possi- 
bilities for bettering existing conditions. 
THE PLAN OF COOPERATION. 
The county commissioners agreed to establish an honor camp of 
approximately 40 negro convicts, to inaugurate a system of discipline 
and to provide suitable portable camp buildings, equipment, materials, 
and supplies," all in accordance with the plans and recommendations 
of the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering. The county 
also undertook to supply to the convicts food of the character and in 
the amount recommended and specified by the United States Public 
Health Service, and to provide for the management and organization 
of the working forces, as well as for the keeping of a system of records 
and reports in accordance with the suggestions of the Office of Public 
Roads and Rural Engineering. The two Federal bureaus agreed, 
respectively, to assign an engineer and a sanitary officer to supervise 
the road work and the conduct of the camp and to be of general 
assistance to the commissioners in connection with other county 
camps and road work. To cover "the cost of collecting the data 
desired by the Government, it was arranged that parts of the salaries 
of the three county officials so employed should be paid by the Office 
of Public Roads and Rural Engineering. 
THE SYSTEM OF CONVICT LABOR IN GEORGIA. 
As the experimental camp was essentially only one unit in the 
prison system of the county and State, it necessarily was subject to 
local rules and regulations and to some extent to local customs. 
Therefore a brief outline of the system in force in the State, and of the 
usual methods of housing, feeding, and guarding the convicts, will^ 
indicate the limitations of the experiment and afford a basis for 
estimating the value of the results attained. 
All males convicted of misdemeanors or felonies in the State, except 
such felons as are required by law to be kept at the State farm, may 
be employed upon the public roads by the authorities of the several 
counties. During the year from June 1, 1915, to May 31, 1916, 412 
white and 3,170 negro felons and 217 white and 3,052 negro misde- 
