90 TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
seer system is a great deal of trouble, and we get very little satisfaction 
out of it. 
We are working at the present time 31 convicts, 16 on the roads and 15 
on the poor farm. Our work with convicts has been in the main satis¬ 
factory. 
Our county commissioners are ex-officio road commissioners (acts 
f 895, pp. . .) 
Hon. J. S. Sherrill, of Hunt: We have no general system of working 
convicts in my county. We have no material. Neither have we a regu¬ 
larly organized county road force. 
The work on roads is done mostly by the overseers. To these are fur¬ 
nished scrapers, etc., and, when demanded, the grading machines. While 
the overseer system is not very satisfactory, I think we are not prepared 
to work the roads by a general system of taxation. For the present, we 
must, of necessity, retain the overseer system. 
Each commissioner puts in about 45 days per quarter looking after 
his precinct. Our special law (1895) allows them $2 per day, provided 
their pay does not exceed $90 per quarter. 
Many men subject to road duty pay the $3 and are thus exempt. This 
money is used in hiring road hands. 
Mack Smith, of Collin: Collin county works its convicts with the hired 
help in four different outfits. We have about ten convicts on an average, 
and our work with them has been satisfactory. 
We need only three hands to run a grader. Of course, we use more in 
digging stumps and getting road ready for grader. Where the county 
force does the plowing, we grade about a half mile of road per day; but 
on a section of road that has a good lot of teams, and a good overseer, the 
plowing is done by the overseer, and we can then grade one mile of road 
per day. The overseers are generally assigned to sections of road from 
three to six miles in length. 
I think it is not advisable to have a State superintendent of roads. 
We have no use for him. 
MACADAMIZED ROADS IN THE BLACK WAXY COUNTIES. 
The term macadamized, as used in this paper, is applied indiscrim¬ 
inately to all roads whose surfaces are improved by the application of 
broken stone or gravel. Technically speaking, a macadamized road is 
one formed of broken stones, every fragment of which can pass through 
a small ring of 2-| inches in diameter. This was John Mac Adam’s test 
on the Bristol road. However, I shall use the word in its popular sense. 
