The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-01-09
Drainage and Good Roads.

In HIS last report the federal secretary of agriculture
emphasized the intimate relation of good roads to both the pro-
prerequisite not to economical production and distribution
but also the promotion of the broader life of the communities
does not require arguments to it. The visible evidence
every community where the roads have been improved With
good roads suited to the traffic they must bear there can be
economy in the handling of agricultural products from the
field to the market and dime dollar expended anspor
aon tax upon pound of stuff brought out of the soil
Millions have been wasted the public roads of the country be
they have not been properly built in the % place and
have not been maintained after construction Something
good deal more required than the building of roads and
the most important Of the conditions to be cnsdered is their
proper drainage.
There are in the United States land that might
be made productive they drained effectively and through
all these regions the building of good roads ought to go hand IN
hand with the drainage Of the lands An object lesson OF how
the things should go together be found at Charleston
c. where drainage and road construction have together
What has been done in road building amounts to very little IN
respect of distance but where drainage and roads have gone TO-
geher there has been very notable increase in the volume and
of traffic with corresponding benefits to the farms served IN
getting their stuff to market Thousands of acres OF the most
productive land laying idle five and ten years ago have been
Great sections where could not live because OF maarlou
conditions have been opened to settlement and the building OF
good roads has made possible for the farmers to market te
crops without paying out all the profits for Transportation
No farm its best wu drainage and no road can be
built or maintained without drainage Mr. Marsden engineer
of the office of experiment stations of the federal department of
agriculture that from one hundred to- one hundred m
millions of acres not including the eighty million of swamp
and overlooked land in the United States could be drained with
profit under present conditions of market facilities and cultural
methods In North Carolina there are six million such acres OF
which only about six thousand have been drained In Ala
baa only about 1000 out of 100000 needing drainage
have cared for In the West the condition largely OBJ
tns The cost nconsderabe compared with the profits de-
rived from the proper drainage of the lands It is not matter
of guess work Farmers who have drained their land testify
that its value has been increased from fifty to three hundred per
cent Marsden cites the of farmer in the coast coun
try North Carolina who drained twenty-five acres at cost OF
$3.50 which yields bale of cotton to the acre. which at sou
bale, would amount to $1,25O =,
But what would it profit the farmer to drain his land without
good roads which to haul his cotton and other farm prod
ucts market? The two things go together The cost OF ha
ing the ordinary roads of the country reckoned at twenty
three cents per per mile for the immense tonnage thus
transported about $65000000 annually The cost OF hauling
over hard surfaced public roads would be about thirteen cents
per ton per mile and the saving would be immense something
400000 the year, about the value OF all the apples
beans potatoes Irish potatoes and honey produced an
nuay in the United States The waste of the United States
would support Chinese comfort all the emng millions OF the
fowery ngdo-waste account of undraned lands Ill con-
scted highways exobtant cost of transportation on the com
mon roads of the country all of which would be escaped II e
people could be impressed with the insanity of the methods gen.
praly prevailing in dealing with these matters
Just as the improvement of the waterways and tar dealing
with the railroads are essential to the prosperity all the people
so also are the drainage of productive land and the building
substantial highways which has been said SO Well e
primary means of transportation for all agricultural
only avenues transportation leading from the point produ
ton the point of consumption rail shipment mere is
all this or ought confederacy of interest and with te
new wear the hope of the American Highway Association TO
mobilize these economic forces for the public welfare
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