The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1902-06-12
PUBLIC ROADS.
Cost of Bad Highways and Effects Of
Good Ones.


The public highways have very i'm,
portant bearing on the judgment form
ed by strangers in regard to the thrift
and enterprise of any county. One
who is looking about for a good local
ity in which to settle will be apt, all
things else being equal, to decide up
on county in which good roads give
him easy access to a market at all
seasons of the year
1t has been estimated by those who
have given the matter careful atten-
ton, that in a section of country hav.
ing first-class roads the transportation
OF his produce to market will cost the
farmer just about one-fourth' the ex-
pense involved in the same traffic over
our ordinary Georgia roads.
Professor s. w. McCallie, assistant
state Geologist, in his excellent treat
ease on THE Roads and Road-Building
Materials of Georgia." says: "It is
a well-known fact that in the winter
and early spring months, the majority
of our common dirt roads become we'll
nigh impossible for heavy traffic. Dur
ing this season of the year, the teams,
which might be proftably engaged in
hauling the farm products to mar
ket, remain idle, at a considerable ex.
pense to their owners in the matter of
attention, feed, etc.
Cost of Bad Roads.
Professor J. A. Holmes, State &C.
ologist of North Carolina, in discussing
this item of expense chargeable to bad
roads, places the loss due to this cause
in Sc middle and western counties of
that state at $1,60O,000 per annum, an
amount sufficient to build more than
rs miles Of frst-class macadamized
road.
Now, if the above figures are cor.
rect, and they are Undoubtedly plausi-
BILE, it would be no exaggeration to
say that the farmers of Georgia ANN.
ally sustain loss OF more than $4,000.
600 from this cause alone. In other
words, this large sun of money would
be an annual net gain to the farmers
of the state, if the reads were SO i'm
proved, that teams could be used at all
seasons of the year
Effect Of G. Roads.
If time and space allowed, we should
be glad to quote more from Prof. Nc
Callie; but we will GO this at another
time and show how good roads dimin-
harness and horses, and how they in.
crease the value Of real estate. On
the moderate estimate that good roads
will increase the value of lands con.
tiguous to them by 81 per acre. Prof.
McCallie thinks that this apparently
insignificant amount would aggregate
more than $10,0OOOO0, sum equal to
about one-half of the present assessed
valuation of all the farming lands of
the state.
Some Good Roads in Georgia.
While urging our people to progress
on this line, we are glad that we are
not compelled to go beyond our own
State for examples of good roads. Sew.
eral hundred miles of first-class ma.
cadamized roads have been built in
several counties under the system pro-
vided by our laws for the improvement
and maintenance of public highways.
The Manchester and Peachtree roads
near Atlanta, in Fulton county. are
thoroughfares equal to the best ideal
More than rs miles of splendid ma.
cadamized roads in Floyd county give
to the citizens easy access to the thriy.
ing city of Rome. The Washington
Pike and the Savannah Valley roads,
of Richmond county, make travel and
transportation easy to Augusta. Roads
of similar merit radiate from Macon
in Bfbb county, from Savannah in
Chatham county, and from Brunswick
near the marshes of Glynn."
GA. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE.