Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1912-06-08

States. A average annual profit OF
80 cents an acre on this land. would
mean net gain to the wealth OF the
United States OF S20a,0U0.000 a year.
Truck products and small fruits
must be delivered quickly to market
If any profit is TO be realized. Truck
and small fruit cannot be maintained
with profit if a long haul over bad
roads intervenes between them and
the railroad station. a net work of
irst-class hard smooth reads will al
most Immediately increase the mum
Der of truck fruit and dairy farms in
any community. The average value
of the various products per acre gives
some idea of the possibilities to the
farmer if he is enabled TO turn more
readily to the raising of fruits and
vegetables While the average value
of wheat per acre is only s7.02 and
corn ss.72 the average value Of vege-
tables per acre is about $40. and OF
small fruits $50.
There is a steady trend Of popula-
tion from the country tc the city, and
this may be attributed To some extent
TO bad roads. During the ten year pc
Rod, iS90-7900. while the increase in
the total population Of the United
States was 13.110,000, 7.642000 of this
total represented the increase in city
population In other words, the cities
gained 2,174,000 more people than the
country. In 1860 only 161 per cent
OF the population lived in cities; in
1900 the city population represented
about 81 per cent OF the total, and
now it is pronably about As per cent.
With hundreds of millions of acres
of land uncultiyated, in fact with
limitless possibilities of home building
and wealth production throughout the
country, we have the spectacle of hun
dreds of thousands of human beings
crowded into the cities while year by
year the human tide rolls restlessly
in from the country to furnish more
consumers and decrease the number
of producers.
To prove that relation exists be-
tween the question of population and
roads, the following illustration may
be cited: In 25 counties selected
from eastern southern, western, and
northwestern states. it has been found
that only l IL per cent of roads were
improved in 1904. These same coun-
ties SOW an actual decrease in popula-
ton averaging 3,112 for each county
for the 10-year period 1S90-190O
twenty-five other counties, located in
the same states, containing 40 per
cent of improved roads, show an
actual increase in population for each
county of $31,095.
Whether good roads cause good
schools or vice versa, Ii is true that
hey exist together, and that one OF
the most important reasons for their
improvement is their effect on school
attendance in the country. If the
country schools are to have maxi
mum efficiency in training and In
struction, the children must be af-
forded facilities for reaching them.
With improved roads the graded
school replace the little one-room, one
teacher and the consolidated school
will free-schools so prevalent in many
sections of the country.
The possibilities of a region of i'm
proved roads are made apparent by
many examples of schools which OPP
crate wagons regularly which gather
up the pupils and carry them to and
from school; when the roads are plac-
ed in such condition as to make this
PRACTICABLE general, a tremendous inn
petus will be given to education in the
United States.
To illustrate this phase of the sub
iect the following example may be
cited. In five states conspicuous for
their good roads, there was in 1904,
an average school attendance of 1913
per cent, while in five other states
having exceptionally bad roads, the
average was only 59.16 per cent Fur
thermore, it has been ascertained that
in the five states having an exception
ally high percentage of improved
roads, the white illiterates formed only
"A of / per cent of the total popula-
ton, while in the FIVE states which IL
literates formed A ga per cent of the
total population, a percentage six and
.one-third times as great as in the for
mer case.