No. 6, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 375 



pose SO well one hundred years ago is not the ideal road of to-day. 

 Conditions have changed, and we no longer seek the highest points 

 in order to get hard ground for a road foundation, or pass some 

 improved land, house or spot of cleared ground. We rather look 

 for suitable grade, then build a road and let the people come to the 

 road in place of covering every hill with a road. Men's views are 

 changing and so are the roads. 



• There seems to be two ways of looking at the benefits to be 

 derived from having improved roads. The point of view of the 

 majority of farmers is that they are imposed upon by being com- 

 pelled to make and maintain good roads for the exclusive use of the 

 city man with his automobile. It has been said by the automobil- 

 ists: "You farmers are cowards and more afraid than your horses." 

 But even if it be so, have the farmers no cause to be afraid in view 

 of the many serious and fatal accidents that are occurring almost 

 daily throughout our State? A horse accustomed to automobiles 

 in the city will scare at them in the country, and the farmers ask 

 ''What are we to do?" It is a fact that during the last two sum- 

 mers our old men, our wives and our daughters have been de- 

 prived of the use of public roads. Formerly they could drive to the 

 towns to do their shopping and dispose of butter, eg'gs and small 

 fruits, and visit neighbors. Now all that is changed. It seems, 

 therefore, that the only way for country people to travel on the 

 i^oads with absolute safety is to walk, and this is precisely what a 

 rich automobilist suggested that they do. The automobilists drive 

 over the roads merely for their own pleasure, while the farmers are 

 obliged to travel on business. Again, the farmers' are taxed heavily 

 to keep the roads in good condition, and just at the season of the 

 year when they could travel over them with pleasure and profit 

 they are practically driven away by locomotives or rubber-tired 

 wheels driven by careless and incompetent hands. 



It is not our intention to take into consideration only one side 

 of the question; this being a free country, the man with the auto- 

 mobile has rights that should be respected. We should also not 

 lose sight of the fact that the manufacture, repair, and operation 

 of automobiles give employment to many thousands of the working 

 people. The automobile trade has reached the enormous sum of 

 about ^40,000,000 annually and has come in a very short time to a 

 prominent position among the industries of our country. Further, 

 there is a large amount of money distributed annually throughout 

 the country by tourists, who, being usually people of wealth, are 

 willing to pay, and do pay, generously for their entertainment 

 while passing here and there throughout the land. This, of course, 

 does not absolve automobile owners from their duty toward others. 

 We believe the auto is with us to stay and we recommend that a 

 tax be placed upon it that will be felt in the construction and main- 

 tenance of our roads. It is the lawless, reckless, heartless few who 

 cause fear, suffering and death to so many. We therefore recom- 

 mend more stringent laws governing the use of automobiles on our 

 country roads. By the swift-moving wheels of the automobile the 

 dust and small stones are lifted and thrown from the surface of 

 the road, leaving it bare, rough and in need of repairs. (We 

 refer to improved State roads.) 



