The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-08-25
Plan to Reduce Road Widths.

Consul Thompson, of Hanover, Ger
many, contributes some valuable com
ments on the roads of Prussia as
compared with those of the United
States. The German roads, he says,
range from twenty to thirty feet In
width, while in OUT Middle or west
ern States, we take land Of an aver
age value of 500 per acre and cut 1t
up with roadways sixty-six feet wide,
practically two-thirds of the same be-
ing given over to weeds, which fur
nish an inexhaustible supply Of seeds
for the adjoining farm lands. The
farmer Of Germany who has con-
cuered the weeds on his ground need
have no thought Of their being started
again from u~ncultivated or uncared-
for land along the roadways. Look
ing into the valleys from one OF the
thousands of lookout towers which
have been placed on the summit or
nearly every high elevation in Ger
many, the roads lie before ones view
like bright white ribbons running
past squares of green or brown fields,
along the verges Of cultivated woods,
and binding village to village-a So
luton Of the first and most impor-
tant problem of human economy and
evolution, that Of transportation.
One of the simplest and most prac-
tical measures that could be taken
:or American roads betterment would
be to reduce their width to from one
third to one-half of what they are
now. Work could then be concen-
rated on the roadway and drains,
Ind both building and maintenance OF
roads become much less expensive.
No road can be called really good
/ it is bordered with weeds or mud,
and to care for and keep up a road
rom sixty to seventy feet in width,
not to mention the lossof land, means
n the long run nearly double the ex-
oense of a thirty or thirty-hve foot
road.
The average width of the first class
highway in Prussia is thirty feet, and
8 found to be ample for all purposes.
Reducing the width of public high.
Ways in but thirteen Mississippi VAL
icy States, aggregating 700, 900 miles,
which now average sixty-six feet, to
'.hirty-six feet, leaving them still
much wider than the highways OF
Prussia, Mr.. Thompson shows would
give back to the farmers OF those
States for cultivation 100000 acres
If generally tillable land, which, at
IN average valuation Of 500 per
acre would mean the restoration to
The producing values Of the States
famed Of S250.000,000. This sum
sas an annual interest value of $12,-
100000, an amount which might be
recovered, and if applied to the pro-
GER scientific construction of roads in
The United States would in a few
years give US the most extensive and
inest country road system in the
world. G. E. M.
Washington, D. G.
This might do very we'll but for
the autos, says the Indiana Farmer,
though we prefer a sixty-foot to a
shirty-foot roadway if we can afford
the space, and the roads car be kept
clear of weeds and other rubbish.
But what kind Of a chance would the
driver of a skittish horse or any other
Kind of a horse in fact but a worn
out plug have, in trying to pass a big
machine on a t~hirty-foot highway? So
long as autos are allowed to use our
common roads the roads should re-
main as wide as now, and the i'm.
provement should extend from fence
to fence, the outer ten feet On each
side being made by the auto owners.