Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1878-03-28
TURNPIKE ROADS.

the great aisasFantage OF all kinds
OF business, and in nearly every coun-
ty throughout the West the people
are discussing the ways and means
OF improving their common roads by
macadamizing or planking them.
The savings and benefits to be de-
rived from such roads far more than
repay their cost. They are indispen-
sable to Il steady current of retail
trade in the towns. They enable the
farmer to ilsassa G ali he hast u qs41dt
any time OF year and in all kinds of
weather, hauling with a single span
OF horses what would be q load for
two or three spans on tnimprored
roads in their best possible condition.
They attract capital and culture to
rural homes and rural avocations.
Counties well improved, with good
firm roads, soon fill up with elegant
country seats, such rs are rarely /
found on mud roads, and the econo-
my, the cOnvenicnccs and the pleas |
ures OF country life are 50 much en-
lIanced by turnpii'cs that the increas- |,
el value of the lands in the country
50 improved always. greatly exceeds |
the cost Of constructing and MAIN !
tanning the r0stty. sAtcn of wealth who
desire to combine pleasant style of
living with offensive farming opera
tiOns, very seldom leave 4 turnpike
20 seek II location for a rev home.
/ The writer of this can recall many
an old dirt road with which he Was
familiar in his youth. and can we'll
remember how rapidly the iIl-kcpt
farms and uninyiIing farm houses by
the waYside gave place to handsome
! homes or elegant residences and trim
enclosures. when the old roads were
! graded aHd macadamizcd. Cham
piOn county, Ohio, has constructed
31J miles of free turnpike, at a cost
OF $3.50. 600, and the following from
! the Urbana, Ohio, Citizen < Gazette
shows how these roads have kept the
price OF lands up in that county when
everything else was shrinking and
land was going down more rapidly
than anything else in dirt road coun-
ties:
Champion county is beyond doubt
the best improved in the State, in the
matter of travelled highways. There
is hardly school district that is not
cut by T. tree t'gfapike. k.l there is
not IL toi.-gate Ia tip..s limits of the
county. Every 7l2 a,res Of land
has mile Of improved road, equal
in every respect to the National road
i'll It's palnicst days. There are 81 of
these roads, reaching ont in every
direction. and supplying every neigh
borhood with the most reliable means
of communications The length of
all roads is 80 miles, the acreage OF
the county being 21G, 900
! The days of mud have long since
passed away and there is not Il day
II the year when tlc heaviest load OF
produce can not be delivered into
any warehouse in the county, with
as much ease as it was formerly done
III August.
Thesc roads have contributed much
towards sustaining the price Of land
. in the county; for it Is conceded that
while the values OF all things have
fallen greatly, land has kept we'll To
the prices which people called lin
hatcd," and blings those prices
| readily.
The experience of Champion
, county IN this respect has been the
experience of hundred other coun-
; ties in Kentucky, Ohio, and other
, Older States. Until Il county is thus
: improved there is but few instruc-
tions that its population has come to
= stay and the rural landscape puts Oh
but few of the signs of permanent
. improvement.
The cost of grading q turnpike de-
= pends on the nature Of the county,
D and the cost of macadmizing varies
| with the distance the rock has to he
hauled from the quarry; but in Ohio,
counties which are about as favorable
to the construction of turkpikes as
the counties adjacent to Kansas City,
! the following is about the average
: estimate eli the cost of grading and
. macadamizing turnpike road:
Grading per rod d.S s. q
: QuarS ing seven plecheS .... > 5!
Hauling same three miles ... o.
DIedhlhp anu piuCliiS II. Z.
Total per rod. ....... Sll 0t
; Total per mile ..... SO. .520 On
u This mile of road would have t,
add only So per acre to the value o
900 acres on each side to pay for its
: elf, and no one can deny that goot
turnpike connecting a farm with it
market town adds more than thre
:: dollars per acre to its value. |
: would pay the owners of adjacen
o lands to build such roads at their Owl
: cost. 1t would pay this city to star
y the turnpike movement by assistin!
l. to build turnpikes for few miles on
in every direction, leaving it to til
y people beyond to take them furthe
= and branch them out to all points c
IL the compass. The retail trade c