No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 209 



PUBLIC KOADS. 



By C. H. RICH, Woolrich, Pa. 



Public roads, the annihilator of distance, the great channels that 

 bring the commercial interest in close relation with the marts of 

 the world, and is the solution of stagnation in commercial centres. 

 It is a civilizer as it brings the dark recesses of a country in close 

 touch with the sciences and business commerce of enlightened lands. 



The permanent highway is one of the prime features in our pres- 

 ent commercial system. It is not only the advance agent, but a 

 builder in the formation of civilization. In all ages the extent and 

 condition of the highways have been the measure of prosperity and 

 power of the people or government. It is true, to a certain extent, 

 that steel supplants the primitive dirt road in binding the widely 

 separated territories, while the more closely connected communities 

 are linked and made more practicable by a good, jjermanent road- 

 bed for the use of vehicles; this means is preferable and more econ- 

 omical than steel and steam, which open to a more profitable use 

 the varied resources, otherwise will lay as dormant as has been 

 the experience of the past centuries that have not availed itself of 

 this pre-eminently potent factor, and which constitute the most 

 striking proof of an onward march in advanced civilization. For 

 these and sundry reasons, the subject of permanent roads, must and 

 is not only beginning, but is far advanced, and shows in a parallel 

 ratio quantity and quality of permanent roads with prosperity and 

 civilization all inter-dependent. 



It is no longer a question of doubt that no single influence has 

 done more in the developing of the United States, as railroads, in 

 conjunction with good public roads, since the public roads are the 

 feeder of steel roads, which coming universally perpendicular to 

 and forming necessary tributaries, as well as feeders to the railroad, 

 public roads are hence the beginning and ending of every general 

 railroad system, to a greater or less extent. 



Inasmuch as the river Gurudi divided the Gauls from the Helve- 

 tians, and separated all business relations, so are countries sepa- 

 rated from each other by either natural causes, as mountains, rivers, 

 forests and distance. Then the dire disasters culminating, aye revo- 

 lutions themselves, with strange relations, are all more or less at- 

 tributable to the want of better public road system. 

 14—7—1900 



