The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-10-22
the events resulting therefrom,
caused the

INTERNATIONAL GOOD ROADS CONGRESS
AT BUFFALO
TO pass almost unnoticed, even the
resolutions adopted thereat being
crowded out of the papers by the
press Of other matter. Yet some of
these were important and, consider
ing the size and enthusiasm of the
meeting, were worthy of a better
fate. The following extracts from
them we're obtained from Martin
Dodge, Chief of the Office of Road In
q1iries of the Agricultural Depart
ment. They have never been pub.
lished, even in the farming papers.
Briefly, the resolutions are-that
the need for investigation and educa-
tiOn by the government in regard to
roads is more pressingtno than
ever; that the public roads office
should be enlarged TO a bureau and
it's appropriation increased to $780,
| 600 a year that the work of the Ma
tional Good Roads Association is
heartily commended that State as
sooiations should be organized in
each State and Territory that thanks
are extended TO the roads which or
ganized and ran the good roads trains
and the manufacturers that equipped
them that the policy of the post
Office in requiring good roads as a
prerequisite TO rural free delivery
is commended that the roads in the
Yellowstone Park should be 80 i'm
proved as 80 furnish an object lesson
TO the country. Three other reso-
lutions seem worth printing in full.
They are:
Resolved, That enterprise has
demonstrated that the greatest prog
ress for good roads has been made in
the States where the system of State
cooperation has prevailed under the
direction and control of a State High
way Commission or Engineering De-
partment. Therefore, we recon-
mend this plan to the several States
as far as the same may be applicable
TO their conditions.
''2 That this Congress endorses
the use of convict labor where prao-
ticable, in the work on public roads
or in the preparation of materials
therefor, thereby taking the conviots
out of competition with honest labor.
''3. That this Congress heartily ap-
proves of the use of the wide tire on
all public roads and the substitution
of the payment of the usual road
taxes in cash instead of in labor"
"There is
LOTS OF MONEY IN FARMING"
said Prof. Myron Whitney, Chief of
the Division of soils of the Agrioul-
tural Department., "if the farmers
will only take pains to be up to date
in their management. For instance,
take the growers of Sumatra tobacco
in the Connecticut valley. Like all
the farmers up there, they have been
living on the ragged edge of failure
for years. Some of them had been
making fair profits at growing TO-
bacco in the open, but these were
comparatively few. Last year the
Department went up there and
showed them how TO raise Sumatra
tobacco under cover at a profit of
81, 900 an acre. Now, some of them
have invested about $50, 900 in fol
lowing the Department example
under direction of a tobacco expert
to whom the government pays 81, 900
a year. They will get all their in,
vestment back this summer and will
make a clear profit of 1000 an acre
besides. Those who hadn't the
money to go into this-it cost about
S4OO an acre to start-or who we're
not sufficiently up to date to do 80,
will make only small profit. The
moral is that farmers should find
out what crops are best for their soil
and should use modern methods in
raising and rotating them. If they
do this, their profit is reasonably
certain
"For another instance, take the
lands in southern Maryland which
have been to a large extent aban-
doned," continued Prof. Whitney.
"These lands at the best sell, when
under cultivation, at $40 an acre, yet
they are quite as good as similar
lands in Lancaster Co., Pa, that
readily bring $125 an acre-the
1n1rrHRrNnE LYING SOLELY IN THE