The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-22
GOOD ROADS IN DOL
 LAFos AND CEDTT5e
What it Is Costing the United States to Improve Its Highways, and
 What it Gets in Return.

Washington, July 1O-Approximately s2O6, ,0eO, ,oOO was spent last year on pub lie roads in the United States, accord ing to statistics prepared by the U. s. Del ar tnent of Agriculture Tn 1904 the total was only s79. .0oO, 600. Tn nine years, therefore, the increase has been over 250 per cent.
 This awakening on the part of the country to the importance of good l roads has, experts say, been due in great measure to the principle of state aid to counties and other local com munittes New Jersey began the move ment in 1891 when it passed it's State Highway Law. Massachusetts and Vermont fo flowed year later, but for the most part the other States were slow to move. In 1904 only fifteen ms d state highway epartments; today l there are only six that have not In 1913 the individual states appro- priated a total of $38,755,088 to sup plement local expenditures.
 The value of this state aid is, how ever, not to be measured by the hg- ures alone, for the bulk of the money comes, and always must come, from. 1912, the cash outlay by countie@. dis tricts and townships, was $134. .493.- S86. Complete figures for 1913 are not yet available, but it is safe to estimate the sum at approximately $l51, 0 CO., l 600. To this must be added some $15&
 
 labor contributed instead of cash in ! districts where this practice prevails Last year. therefore, local communi- ties contributed in round numbers, one hundred and. sixty-six millions of dol lars, as against appropriations from state treasurfes of $38,755. 088. The
 true importance of this thirty ght
 millions lies in the fact that it means expert supervision Of the expenditure
 of considerable portion of the vast
 sum of two hundred millions. When each county built as it chose and when
 1t chose the services of trained engf- neers Swerea usually out of the ques- tton.. There was little opportunity to test innovations, little advance in the
 science of road-buiIding, and there
 was also -dinf1culty in arousing each
 county individually to do it's hest to improve conditions within it's limits
 State aid has changed all this. The l best engineering skill is available for all works of importance, there is CO., l operation and constant stimulus to
 further improyem ents. The money
 contributed by the states does not only build more roads, it makes better
 those that other money builds.
 At the present time there are in the Limited States 20,741 miles of roads I improved either wholly or in part by. state aid This is nearly the mileage of the French routes nationaIes the system of great national highways l which is the envy of every civilized nation. The routes natfonaIes are. of course. only a. small part of the total
 mileage Of France, where practically | every road of any importance is an
 improved road, and France is. vastly 1 smaller country both in area and in
 population than the United States, So that this comparison is not, in itself I very dattering to our progressiveness
 It shows, however, that we have at
 least made a. beginning. Of the 2,226, l SAP miles of roads in the United l States, 223,77 miles, or approximate proved.
 To improve the remaining 90 per l cent may well seem a big job. It is, in fact, only made possible because the I work really pays for itself. From ma l terial gathered by the U S Depart ble to prove not only that good roads are a profitable investment, but to determine exactly what dividends they I pay. An investigator assigned to Isthis problem in any given. locality first ascertains the extent of the terri 1 tory that is tributary to some river l The next stop is an accurate esti-
 mate of the total product of this ter
 ritory; so much gain, so much tobac- l co, so much garden truck, etc, etc Of this quantity a. certain portion is con stunned on the farm; the rest is ship ped over the road in question. The whole calculation can then be checked | by Investigators at the shipping point Ito which the road leads. In general it has been found that the two methods I yield. much the same information 1 the total amount of produce hauled over the road. Next, the length of the | average haul is calculated, the size of ffhe load permitted by the character of the road ascertained, and the cost l of teams and drivers figured With those facts before him the investiga- l tor is now able to state positively the 1 cost of. hauling ton of produce on 1 that road, to express in terms of those I stton-Ini1es'' the freight traffic on the
 road, and finally the total cost to the 1community served by the road of haul Ting its goods to market Armed with I these data, it is easy to decide how
 much money can be proftably spent l in improving the road, and what are !, the returns that the investment yields to the community
 Iy These returns are of various kinds. | First and foremost is the reduction in 1 the actual cost of hauling, the plain fact that it takes less time and labor to haur load over a good road than I over a poor one. Less obvious is the l effect of improved roads in increasing
 the total output of community. In T the case of one county in Virginia | where, particularly thorough records 5l have been kept. this output was more l,than doubled The farmers founA
 that with a. market always and read Il fly accessible to them, 1t paid to work at the land to its maximum production. This explains the very remarkable
 rise in farm land values which nearly
 always accompanies road improve I ment. The rise is not a fictitious one,
 of no benefit to the man who wishes to farm and not to sell. Thc1 land is
 more valuable because it can prof1ta- i ply be made to oTproduee more. In oth- CT words. the money that goes into
 the road comes back with Interest from the land.
 I STILL HANDICAPPED.