The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-05-07
HOW MANY MILES OF
ROADS HAVE WE GOT?
Total Mileage and Cost Are Being De.
termined BY U. S. Department
of Agriculture.

The United States department of agri
culture is now gathering information
which when complete should not onl,
giye the total mileage of public roads il
the United States and their cost, bu
should serve as basis for estimatn.
the relative value of the different kind
OF highways. Some $4,000 sets OF in
quiry blanks have already been dstrib
uted through the state highway commits
slons, and some al these are now begin.
ming to come back to the department
Each set consists of four cards.
| OF these the first asks Tor information
| on the mileage OF different classes OF
roads in the county to which it is sent
The mileage does not include, of course,
streets in cities and towns. The roads
| are Undivided into 10 classes. as follows:
Brick paved, concrete macadam with the
addition OF some substance such as as
phalt, oil, or tar, plain macadam, gravel,
shell, other hard-surfaced roads, sand
and clay mixture properly graded and
drained, ordinary earth roads properly
constructed, and finally, unimproved
roads.
The second card asks for information
in regard to the tax rate for the roads
and the amount OF work and money ex-
pended on them.
The third blank is concerned with the
names of local road officials, and the
fourth with facts in regard to the bond
issues and the indebtedness of the coun-
ties for their road systems.
As there are approximately 5000 coun-
ties in the United States, in many OF
which the mileage has never been esti
mated it is hardly probable that this
preliminary survey will be exact. The
department, however, viii be- able to de-
tect any excessively inaccurate reports
for the road mllefge per square mile OF
territory does not vary excessively. Ex
cept in desert or undeyeloped country
less than half mile of public road to
every square mile of territory is rare,
while in the most thirkly populated rur
al sections the maximum is no more than
two and one-hall Or three miles. Thus, |
in France. there il an average for the |
entire country OF l.76 to square mile. |
In Italy. however, this has fallen to SO, /
IlusSiDIf on account OF Lne mountainous I
character of much OF the peninsula and /
1f Sicily and Sardinia.
In America the average is approx
nately so miles, which. in view OF the
'act that much OF the country is sparse
y settled, seems unduly high. An ex-
1lanation, however, is to be found in the
act that in many states the law pro- !,
tides that each section line shall be
public road. Thus, for example there
ire in the state of Iowa alone more
han I04 900 miles of legal highways.
much larger mileage than is
equired by traffic.
When the information in regard to the
xisting roads which the department is
ow seeking is complete, it is the inten
ion to continue the inquiry year after
ear in order to ascertain the durability
nd economy of the various kinds of
ighways. The data thus collected should
e useful to load engineers all over the
ountry and it is hoped that county
gents and Others interested in improve.
tent of agriculture will do their best to
icilitste the collection of the desired in.