92 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
In Tarrant county, the convicts grade and gravel the roads, while the 
overseers simply keep the road in repair. These roads (gravel) cost about 
$350 under the new law and about $1000 per mile under the old law. 
The county has two superintendents of roads, one for each camp, and 
ihe commissioner in whose precinct they work has control of the outfit. 
Tarrant has about 100 miles of macadamized roads. 
'Dallas county has about 40 miles of macadamized roads. The mate¬ 
rial used for metal was white rock (limestone) or gravel. The gravel is 
spread 18 feet wide and six or eight inches deep. These roads cost 
about $1500 per mile. 
Some of the counties (as Cooke, Hill, etc.) have a few sandy roads. 
T hese are improved by grading up and coating with clay or gravel. This 
is the old-established treatment for such roads. (See special road law 
for Dallas, p. . .) 
ROAD LAWS — GENERAL AND SPECIAL. 
The Legislature in 1891 passed a law (see acts pp. 149-151) authoriz¬ 
ing the appointment of road superintendents for the county, or for a 
superintendent for each commissioner’s precinct, at the discretion of the 
commissioners’ court. The duties of the superintendent were defined, 
hut it is sufficient to say that he was given general control of the road¬ 
working system, subject to the orders and direction of the commission¬ 
ers’ court. His salarv in counties that have 15,000 inhabitants can not 
exceed $1000 per annum, and in counties that have over 15,000 inhab¬ 
itants it can not exceed $1200 per annum. Similar instructions were 
applied to precinct superintendents, the salary being $300 and $400 re¬ 
spectively. The counties of Grayson, Travis, Dallas, Limestone, Lamar, 
Hill, McLennan, Tarrant et al. were exempted from the provisions of 
this act. Dallas and Collin had the option of adopting this law in lieu 
of the special acts for these counties. 
In 1891 (acts 1891, pp. 69-73) the Legislature passed a special road 
law for the counties of Grayson. Dallas, Fannin, Travis, Hunt, Hill et al. 
This law empowered the said counties to employ a road commissioner, 
whose duties were similar to those of the superintendent mentioned 
above. His salary w r as not to exceed $100 per month. It also provided 
for working convicts on public roads, hut made no allowance for the 
payment of officers’ cost in the case of said convicts. 
In 1893 (acts 1893, pp. 106-109) a special road law was passed for the 
counties of Collin, Grayson, Williamson, Lamar and Bell. This law 
makes the county commissioners of these counties ex officio road com¬ 
missioners, whose duties as road commissioners were similar to those of 
the superintendent defined in the general law of 1891. Each commis- 
