The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-07-16
INFORMATION
ON MILEAGE
Facts Being Collected BY tho
Department Of Agriculture.
COST OF OUR HIGHWAYS.

Rseutts o. the Canvass viii esrvs - .
Oae's For Estimating the Relative
vaIvss Of the Different kinde -
Hish~ays Throughout the Country.
The United States department Of ~
riculture IL now gathering Information
which, when complete. should not only
give the total mileage OF public roads
In the United States and their COST
but should serve AZ u basis for eo6-
mating the relative value Of the differ
emit kinds Of highways. Some $1,000
sets Of inquiry blanks have already
been distributed through the state
highway commissions. and some q
these are now beginning to come back
to the department. Each ct consisto
Of four cards.
OF these the nrst asks for infornAr
ton on the mileage Of different classes
Of roads In the county to which Il =
sent. The mileage doss not includA
Of cours>, streets In cities aud towns.
The reads ars divided into ten Glasses
q follows: Brick paved, coocrstA
macadam. with the addition Of some
substance such a. asphalt, oil o. tarI
plain macadam, gravel she'll. other
hard surfaced roads. sand and clay
mixture properly gsadsd and drained.
ordinary earth roads -propsrty coa-
structed and, 0nally. unimproved roadA
The second card asks for Information
In regard to tho tsx rate for tho roads
and tho amount Of work and money OK.
pended on them.
The third blank u concerned With
the names Of local road o6lcials and
the fourth with facts In regard to tho
bond issues and the Indebtedness OF
tho counties for their road systems.
As there arc approximately 5000
counties In tho United States, In many
Of which the mileage has never even
been estimated. 1t Il hardly probable
that this preliminary survey will DO
exact. The department. however, will
b. able to detect any excessively tnac-
curate report, for the road mileage pei
square mile Of territory does not vary
excessively. Except in desert or un-
developed country less than half =
mile of public road to every square
mile Of territory Is rare. while In the
most thickly populated rural sections
the maximum Is no mor than two and
one-haIf or three miles. Thus In
France there Is IN average for the IN
tire country Of 1.78 to a square milo.
In Italy. however. this has fallen to
O.68, possibly OH recount OF the noun
famous character of much OF the pen
insula and OF Sicily and Sardinia.
In America the average IL approx
mately O.9O mile. which In view Of tho
fact that much Of the country Is sparse-
~ settled seems unduly high. An ex-
PLANTATION. however. Is to he found In
the fact that in many states the law
provides that each section line shall 10
, public road. Thus. for example. there
are In the state OF Iowa alone more
than 10000 miles Of legal highways.
manifestly q much larger mileage than
Is required by traffic.
When the Information in regard to
the existing roads which the depart
ment IL now seeking Is complete 1t In
the intention to continue the inquiry
year after year In order to ascertain
the desirability and economy Of tho
various highways. The data thus COL
lected should be useful to road engi-
neers all over the country. and It h
hoped that county agents and OtherH
interested In improvement Of agrtcui-
ture will do their best to facilitate the
collection Of the desired Information.