No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 435 



a bad road, that they ought to build good roads rathci- than bad ones. 

 \\'li('n this was done we found tliat a lively agitation was created 

 among the dilleient municipalities; the legislature was quick tlieu to 

 respond to the voice of the people, and last year a bill champio«ed 

 by Mr. Fatulio was pui through tiie legislature granting |1,()(J0,U00 to 

 aid municipalities in the bettering of the roads along the lines they 

 themseives had created. 



In carrving on niv woik J wvui to New Orleans to attend the con- 

 veution of the good roads association, and there I saw the good roads 

 tiain and the work which was being done by it. I immediately re- 

 turned and suggested to the executive of our association that we 

 should adopt some such plan. The manufacturers immediately of- 

 fered to supply the machinery, the railroads said they would carry 

 the implements fr(H; from one part of the country to the other, and 

 the municixialities said they would furnish stone at places convenient 

 for the work to be done, and the result is that from the 1st of June 

 we have been carrying on a work of practical construction. We go 

 to the place where the material is prepared, crush the stone, grade 

 the road, build these concrete culverts where they can be seen by the 

 people, take one man from a township and train him in the work so 

 he can do it after we have gone; we utilize the material that is there. 

 We do not try to show the people a piece of superficial road and then 

 get out, but the practice is to commence the work and carry it on 

 until the material is exliausted, and as a general thing a mile of road 

 is constructed in each municipality. At the next session of the legis- 

 lature I expect a special appropriation will be made for operating 

 six outfits of machinery in this way, and the municipalities will not 

 be asked even to contribute the material, but sample roads will be 

 built at Government expense, as free samples or object lessons to 

 show the people how roads should be made. 



We talk roads here, and I tell you how a road should be built. I 

 frequently told the people how a road should be built before I knew 

 how to build it myself. But what is the use of doing that, and 

 what is the use of our going on railing at the people and trying to 

 make them believe we know vastly more than they do about 

 this subject? Let us tr_\ to undo, to unteach them something 

 that they have been taught, and we will have accomplished a great 

 deal and taken a step in the right direction. 



I believe that if a premium were offered for it to-day and all the 

 genius of man brought to bear and concentrated on the formation of 

 one plan for the building of bad roads no more successful method 

 could be framed than some of those ingenious inventions called road 

 systems which have been employed in some of our municipalities. 

 [Applause.] There were to be found the most unjust, the most un- 

 fair, the most incompetent, the most inelBcient, and the most ex- 



