Yours of the twenty-seventh received. The last Legislature passed an act providing for the working of convicts on county roads on certain conditions. This act has as yet not been printed and I, therefore, cannot furnish you with it. It provides that the counties desiring convicts must apply to the Board of Directors of the State's Prison for the number that they want which must be not less than forty. It also provides that before work can be done that the engineers provided by the State Geological Survey must lay out the road that is to be built; that the county is required to pay the Prison Directors not less than $1. per day for each of the convicts so used and must also provide suitable quarters for the accomodation of the convicts including an abundance of fresh water. After such application is made if it is approved by the Council of State the Prison Board will furnish the convicts. The law provides that nothing in this act shall interfere with any contracts now in force concerning the working of convicts. As this department is now informed there are no convicts available for work on county roads, all of the convicts not at work on the State Farm being employed at other places on contracts heretofore made. The recent law passed provides that applications for convicts shall be considered according to priority of application. I take it that your application would be one of the first, if not the first, to be considered under the new law. I am unable to state just when the State's Prison authorities will have convicts that can be furnished you. I would suggest that you take this matter up directly with the Prison Board.