The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-19
national point of view, they will de-
serve better of the people.
CREAMERIEs AND GOOD ROADS


CREAMERIES AND GOOD ROADS.
The portion of the public whose good
| fortune it has been never to be obliged
to use for pleasure or business the
average country roads of the whole
country, East or West, were made
aware of the crying need for their i'm
provement through the efforts of Col.
Pope, the pioneer in the introduction
Of the modern safety; but that portion
that has had to use them, farmers
and those who do business with farm
ers, have groaned where they have not
vented their irritation in terms not
found in any good book, as they jolted
over them, or had their pity wrung
for the poor horses which had to drag
vehicles through their muddy depths.
With the advent of the safety came
the realization to it's makers of the
vast area of markets lying within
country road districts, access to which
was barred by the condition Of the
roads; and they began an agitation for
ooOA
wheelmen, wearied with the monotony
of much-traveled city streets and long
ing for a spin in the country.
But country roads are laid out, con-
structed and, if ever, kept in repair
by those living along them, and they
had no interest in matchmaking or rid
ing. Their usual attitude is one Of
hostility, looking upon the wheel as
another badge of that nascent aristoc-
racy of plutocrats which their walk
ing delegates assure them is growing
up in this country with themselves and
their toll for it's foundation. If farm
ers will not improve the ways over
which they drive their wagons and
carriages to and from market and
church, it was hardly to be expected
that they would respond with much
favor to the appeals of the wheel
makers or wheel riders. They looked
on roads as the darkey did on his leaky
roof, which could not be mended when
it rained and did not need mending
when the weather was dry. When
roads are impossible from mud they
stay at home, and when dry it IS
everybody's business to fix them and
each body waits for everybody to be-
! gin. And so the roads remain year
after year, causing an absolute but I'M
appreciated loss to the farmers and
them.
But the Mankato Free Press notes
the arrival of a potent ally of the good
roads movement in the establishment
of the creameries. To these there must
be made the daily trip with the milk
from the dairy, whether it rain or
shine, and whether the road be axle
deep in mud or felloe-deep in dust
Where the milk has to go to the cream
cry there can be no staying at home
until the road dries, for milk is a
perishable product and its limit of
preserved sweetness is a narrow one.
Even when the road is dry the value
of the milk is impaired, if the way be
rough, by the churning the jolting
gives it. With this comes a quickened
sense of the money value of good roads
which is having the effect of driving
out the crude notions of road building
and repair that have prevailed, en-
couraging a study of road making as a
real art with its laws and rules, and
banishing the notion that land that is
useless for any other purpose is good
enough for a roadway The Free Press
notes that every creamery is becoming
the focus where center better roads,
and to the creamery must be given one
more credit mark besides those it has
already earned as an economizer Of
time and labor on the farm.