The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-11-25
misteIlann.
Improving Country Roads.


A convention is to meet at Pittsburg
this month to consider plan for the
Improvement of country roads through
out the Union. The first fact which
strikes the observer is the amazing dis
advantage under which the country pro
Queer labors by reason of the totally
neglected condition of our common
highways. If an advance in freight
rates were to be made which would in
crease tie cost of getting grain to mar
ket by from two to five cents per bushel,
deere ase by that amount the profits of
the farmer and proportionately lower
the value of his land as an investment,
a great cry of remonstrance would 90
up from every quarter of the country.
Yet the farmer bears without thinking
just such burden in the shape Of ordi-
nary highways that make the transport
of his grain to the nearest market point
tedious and costly job. Measuring a
million miles or more in its various
ramiications. dissolviBg in the rains of
April, baking and pulverzing benea, h
the rays of the midnight sun, drift ing
and disappearing in the whirlwinds of
November, and presenting at all times
but little more than a roughened streak
of soil to serve as a land highway for
the great volume of internal traffic, the
time seems to have come when the
American common road may rightfully
assert itself as the most expensive, and
by all odds the most eXravagantly
maintained, of all the public institu-
tions. The methods of making
are thoroughly well ascertained. The
approximate cost is known. Great
Britain has done the work which has
helped to inspire so many of her people
with passionate love for country life,
and TO maintain British agriculture in a
struggle with the superior productive
ness of An erica, but for which aid it
must have succumbed long ago. We
have only to set to work in earnest, aud
the next generation will see this coun-
try far ahead of the rest of the world
in the thrift and prosperity of its farm
most via'ly intero sted take up the
cause? 1t is the local community which
will be first benefited. 1t is the local
community that should take the first
step. There ought to be started, in
every county, an association for the im-
provement of country roads, out of
county funds. This improvement should
not consist in any foolish attempt to
adopt old methods, but should follow
the experience of the world, and build
new roads on the approved plan, per
manent even if costly, as rapidly as Tax
collections will permit. The expendi-
ture required is large, but the return i:
greater, and it is immediate. To say
nothing of tie greater facility of get.
ting TO market and of the value of easy
intercourse between families, it is re
ported, from those counties in New
Jersey where this has actually been
done, that the subsequent advance in
the values of farm property is largely
in excess of the entire cost of the work
And this is the universal testimony OF
change from the "mud streak " tC
the macadamized highway. The eyes
of our farmers have been strained tC
too great distance. They have locke
only at the Liverpool market and the
railway freight rate. When once they
gaze upon the villainous cart track that
runs past their doors, the only avenue
of egress for man or beast or grain
they will see their greatest handicap
in the race for prosperity.-St. Pau
Pioneer Press