No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 22/ 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ROADS AND 



ROAD LAWS TO THE STATE BOARD 



OF AGRICULTURE. 



S. R. DOWNING, Chairman. 



Harrisburg, Pa., January 23, 1901. 



As tlie years go by, public sentiment in favor of solid roads in- 

 creases. The growth of this sentimeot is due, in large part, evidently, 

 from agitation of the question at farmers' institutes and by its dis- 

 cussion in National and State bulletins sent out by our Agricultural 

 Departments. Reforms, no matter how necessary to the public 

 welfare, must be preceded by a vital, persistent, educational pressure. 

 Thus time must elapse and the public suffer until the ^'eyes of the 

 blind,'' as it were, are opeoed. Not many years ago few would con- 

 sent to the public macadamizing of roads upon the sole objection 

 that it would be raising the tax. Now the public have reached so 

 far in the alphabet of the movement as to know of a certainty that 

 if we do not sow we cannot reap, and that good roads are virtually 

 dividend payers in the Avay of saving, not only in taxes, but in the 

 economy of draft and time. And yet, notwithstanding that this 

 light has been thrown about us by the insistent advocacy of what 

 is for our good in the betterment of roads, and notwithstanding we 

 maj really know that money in solid roads over which we may not 

 travel is equal to money invested for profit in building and loan 

 associations, yet there are a multitude of instances where the citi- 

 zens of townships object to the improvement of roads mainly for 

 the benefit of the people of other townships. 



To be definite, in township A the citizens refuse the improvement 

 of a certain thoroughfare, although perhaps a State road, on the plea 

 that few tax payers of township A use the road, whereas such 

 road is a thoroughfare between townships B, C and D and the county 

 town. The townships B, C and D have no remedy as against town- 

 ship A. The citizens of township A feeling that there is injustice in 

 the matter, appeal to the grand jury for county aid. The county is 



