Road Demonstrations. 



333 



dition. A splendid concrete culvert was also built. AVe think that the 

 good road sentiment will surely be greatly stimulate;! by their coming." 



Under date of November 7, the county highway engineer, Mr. "W. T. 

 Reese, writes : "Your work has certainly aroused enthusiasm here. It is 

 the best thing we have ever had in this county to arouse interest in the 

 roads. As a direct result I have been able to do $1,000 worth of work 

 more on the road since you were here. ' 



The newspaper report of the work at Lamar finished with these 

 words: "The people were out to see the demonstration from early in the 

 morning until late in the afternoon. ]\Iany of those who witnessed the 



1,140 feet of bridge across the Current river at Van Buren, Mo. State Highway De- 

 partment, designer; County Highway Engineer, supervisor; Missouri Bridge and 

 Iron Co., contractor. 



work were strong in the belief that Barton county should have a fund of 

 one hundred thousand dollars for good road purposes. This amount of 

 money judiciously expended on the roads of Barton county would in- 

 crease the value of the county at least one million dollars. Public im- 

 provement sentiment comes slow but in time it will enter into control, 

 and then we will see things that Ave never saw before." 



The cost of good roads in that section of the State through which 

 we passed from St. Louis county to Greene county is comparatively small. 

 The prevailing chert hills and banks and the hard nature of some of the 

 soil makes necessarily a high initial cost in comparison with earth road 



