Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-03-18
GOOD COUNTRY ROADS.
H. R. c. in Farm News.


III. r. G.. in Farm News
There has been SO much written and
published on the Importance to the
farmer of good roads, that scarcely
anything new can be said on the sub
iect. Yet so much of the prosperity
OF the farmers interests depends upon
the condition of the country roads
that we venture to repeat what most
farmers already know.
The difference between good roads
and bad ones often accounts for the
difference between success and failure.
This may seem strong assertion, but
let us look at the conditions of two
farmers with equally good farms, a
few miles from a good public road,
which leads to good market. They
both can raise on their farms products
which they must market to get their
full value. The one has good cross
road, easy of access, which within
mile reaches public highway, and he
can always haul his hay and his corn,
his chickens and his putter and his
eggs to market at the time of year
that they bring the highest prices,
which is generally in the fall and win
ter. He prepares his product for the
market and has always team ready
to go to town when the time comes.
He gets the highest prices for all his
products and gets to town and back in
the least possible time. His farming
is adjusted to supplying a market
which he knows he can always reach
when he wishes. His family, too, can
make calculations for their necessary
trips to town. They know the roads
are always in good order and that
even the coIdest or toughest weather
of winter need not stop them.
They can make the most possible
profit from their trading in the town,
and they are always on the alert for
the most profitable marketing.
The other farmer can, if he wishes,
raise just what his neighbor has raised
and sold for the cash. But he is so
hemmed in by bad roads, that for one
half the year he cannot calculate on
the time that he can bring. anything to
town. He must wait until the roads
dry up, or If, in his restraint, he be-
comes impatient and determines to
drag through the mud, he must have
twice the teams to do the work which
his neighbor has done, and twice the
time for the trip, so that an all-day
drive, mostly through the mud, will
scarcely accomplish what his neighbol
has done easily in few hours. Be-
sides, many things which require fire.
quent marketing cannot be taken te
market at the proper time; the roads
are too bad. There is, therefore, nc
care taken to prepare them for the
market. If butter aceumulates, OF
eggs are gathered from the barn, they
must be sold to the huckster at a re-
duced price, and become at once sec
ond class, in which there is NO profit
The cows are not cared for, as if thu
hutter could be. naxiketed at hi2l
prices, for even high grades are no
profitable and the chickens not select
ed for their egg producing qualities
for to them an egg is an egg, and
pound of butter sold to the huckste
need have no great care, for the wifi
does not get much for it, and she mus
often take the price in barter, becaus
she cannot go to town to get what sh
needs until the roads get better.
/ The difference in the order and thrift
in the two families soon becomes ap
parent. The one becomes thrifty ant
prosperous, and the other become
careless and shiftless; land not becaus
they were not originally both anxiou
and able to improve and prosper, bu
because one has been plastered a
one-half the year by the mud of ba
roads, and the other has had free &C
cess to town, driving always on goo
roads and doing the shopping an
marketing under the best possibl
conditions.
Good roads, with modern helps, ca
be easily constructed, If the count
commissioners and the farmers wi
unite for a definite purpose. In moi
. cases the farmer never expects t
make a good road by the work he
willing to spend on it. His obles
often goes no further than to wor
out his taxes and to mend the road j
his immediate neighborhood. TIL
} work, too, is almost always done whe
, he has nothing else to do, or when b
3 thinks he can spare the time. I'll
: work consists in filling up the choc
holes with sand or gravel if they q,
near at hand, or if neither can be ha'
= then with clay or sod and soil. III
r end of it all is, that when the road
/, used, two holes are often made whe,
: there was only one before, and tn
t road will be as bad or worse next yes
4 than this.
= If good country roads are to becon
4 common, the whole system of roat
, making must be changed.
A plan must be adopted by which
a the work done on the road must
8 under the direction of qualified 81
: gineer, and he should be employed
# the county commissioners and wi
A regard entirely to his fitness for Il
a work. Road building everywhere r.
| quires proper foundation.
:. To secure this, good drainage is a
,r solutely necessary.
Witnesses Must Pay.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo-, March IL.
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