402 BOAKD OF AGRICULTDl'E. 



of the convicts iii the breaking of stone for road material. To-day that 

 State is supplying the prepared stone to the counties at 25 cents a cubic 

 yard, on board the cars, which is less than one-third the ordinary market 

 price; yet sufficient to pay for the maintenance of the convicts. The rail- 

 roads of the State are carrying the material at the bare cost of hauling, 

 for they realize that the improved country roads will bring to them in the 

 future a great increase in farm products for shipment. 



Many objections to the plan proposed will doubtless arise, for the 

 questions to be solved are important ones, and for that reason no plan 

 can or will be presented but will have its Aveak points. The most serious 

 of these objections is the cost of a new prison, which would necessarily 

 have to be constructed at the plant. This, however, would be much less 

 than is generally supposed, since the shale can be burned into ordinary 

 and pressed front brick of the finest quality. The brick could, therefore, 

 be made and the prison constructed for a very reasonable cost. 



It seems, therefore, that, given an ever-growing demand for better 

 roads, an abundance of nature's products which can be made in the best 

 of road material, a large number of convicts able and willing to work, 

 that we have a combination which, under the proper management, would 

 give us the improved i-oads, furnish employment for our convict labor, 

 and yet give no offense to that army of honest workingmen whose inter- 

 ests and welfare are ever to be upheld. 



GOOD ROADS, BUILDING AND MAINTAINING. 



J. A. MITCHELL, NOBLESVILLE. 



The discussion of the subject of "Good Roads" is very opportune, and 

 especially so when this discussion is within a meeting of an organization 

 of farmers. 



Good i-oads bring and keep the farmer and his family in touch with 

 the civilization of the larger world; good roads, in fact, make the farmer 

 one of the dominant elements of progress, of prosperity, of culture, of 

 intellect and of refinement. Man's nature is social, and demands such 

 food for its nurture as is gotten only by mingling with his fellows. Deny 

 him this, and he becomes selfish, narrow, sordid and morose. Social 

 intercourse adds much tea man's capacity for enjoyment of the good 

 things of life. 



I'.nd roads separate man from his neighbors by impassable barriers; 

 good roads annihilate distance and init liiiu daily in touch with the 

 thought and doings of the whole world. The intelligence acquired by this 

 mingling with his fellowmen has a very decided commercial value, for a 

 well-informed citizen is of far more worth to the State than he who never 



