The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-09-04
Ecorc1upEp FROM PAGE g..


thrown away every year IN our
efforts to cultivate certain crops on
lands not suited to them will aggre-
gate an annual loss of many millions
in.each State.
6. The use OF our poorpublic roads
costs Us in North Carolina about
5000, 900 more each year than it
would cost if these roads were good
ones.
In the thirteen Southern States
taken as a whole, this annual loss
will aggregate not less than $780,,
900, 900 per annum.
That this is a problem of vital inn
p~ortance every one admits. As
stated above, the use of our bad
roads as compared with the <use of
good roads costs the people of the
Southern States to an extent which
may be considered as equivalent to
a tax-can it mud tax, a sand tax,
or a hill tax, if you ike-of not less
than 800 per capita for every man,
woman and child living in these
States. And yet this tax so enor-
nous has no compensating benefits.
We must realize, further, that in adj
dition these bad roads exercise a
blighting influence on the life and
happiness of the people in every
agricultural community.
In the first place, people have
always been accustomed to- bad
roads. The majority of them have
never e a really good road, cOnse-
quently public opinioni is u~nfavorable
to any change which involves the
levy of a tax. They plead poverty
without realizing the fact that while
building good roads is expensive
work, the expense of doing without
them is still greater. They claim
that they are too poor to build good
roads, not realizing that in truth
they are too poor to do without
them.
In many regions there is an alb
sence of suitable materials for build
ing the best roads, and in all of our
States there is a sad lack of trained
road builders.
In order to vercome these diff
culties, we must first educate the
people, throuh the press, through
public addresses, through published
reports and by the building here and
there of short pieces of sample roads.
The people must be shown that good
roads are necessary, that they pay
and that they are possible, even in
comparatively poor communities.
The good roads movement must be
pushed, by the intelligent men and
women in every community. We
must secure the cooperation of the
farmers clubs, of boards of trade,
schools, churches. railroads, and all
such organized forces.
Everybody now admits that the
old road system is a failure. The
experiences of all civilized countries
has demonstrated this fact and has
demonstrated further the fact that
the only satisfactory way to build
roads is to raise money for that pur-
pose by some sytem of taxation. But
we cannot change abruptly from one
system to the other. We must start
with a small tax sometimes supple
mented by private subscription.
By degrees the people ID will come
to understand the money value of
good roads (2) they will see that
the money raised by taxation for
roads is not only a splendid invest
ment, but that this money is re-
turned to the people as a compensa-
ton for their labor and in this way
is kept in circulation 90 in proper
ton as they do this they will agree
to an increase of tax, and finally they
will abolish the compulsory labor
system entirely, maintaining their
public highways on a basis of taxa
ton alone.
The first thing to be done to our
public roads is to have them care
fully surveyed and relocated where
necessary bya competent engineer.
In this way we will avoid the bad
hills and secure good roads at a far
less expense than would otherwise
be possible. - ,Hs.atS. 49,.
Next, we should make a careful
study of the materials which can be
used in the building of good roads.
In the reckless e the secret of
building and maintaining cheap
roads will be found to lie in the