438 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



til the 250,000 or more farmers in Iowa are made to realize that money 

 voted for good roads is not in any sense a donation. It is for permanent 

 improvements and should be considered as such. In all of our large 

 cities wholesalers and retailers use motor trucks instead of wagons to 

 distribute every kind of merchandise. In some portions of New York 

 state, Ohio and northern Illinois, a number of farmers club together, 

 purchase a motor truck and on market day instead of a dozen men and 

 teams going to market, one man and his motor truck gathers up the but- 

 ter, eggs, poultry, vegetables and fruits, and the other eleven men and as 

 many teams are in the field. Each farmer gives the motor man a list of 

 what is wanted from town and on his return the supplies are distributed. 

 If we estimate a man and team at $3.00 per day, $33.00 is saved that 

 neighborhood every market day. When the farm roads of Delaware 

 county are what they should be, our milk haulers in summer will not be 

 out all day in the sun and show up at the creamery with a load of sour 

 milk. They will bring into use the inexpensive motor truck and within 

 three hours he will have gathered the milk, deposited it at the creamery 

 and be back in his field at work. 



But I fancy someone having in mind the illustration of the half mile 

 of road constructed by the two farmers would like to know if $1,600.00 

 per half mile, or $3,200.00 per mile, will cover the expense of such a road 

 as I have described. I confess that I do not know, I am not an engineer, 

 but I judge it would be done for much less than $3,200.00 per mile as we 

 are only allowed now $17.50 per mile, or $3,182.50 less than $3,200.00'. 

 Whatever may be the cost of construction, I confidently believe the boys 

 and young men of this audience will live to see the day when Iowa pub- 

 lic roads will be approximately as good as I have described; and when 

 they are, farm lands in Iowa will be sought after at $200.00 to $500.00 

 per acre. Hon, Sidney Foster, of Des Moines, once said, "Of all that's 

 good, Iowa affords the best." He could and should have made one notable 

 exception. Our country roads are a positive disgrace to the state. The 

 last week in October the Alabama Good Roads Association met at Selma. 

 Every county was represented with an unusual attendance and a resolu- 

 tion unanimously passed calling upon the next legislature to authorize a 

 state bond issue of $50,000,000.00 for use in the construction of country 

 roads in every county of the state. This is a large amount of money, but 

 if these bonds are negotiated at a low rate of interest running from 

 twenty to fifty years, and the money wisely and economically expended, 

 it will more than quadruple the selling value of farm lands in Alabama 

 before these bonds mature. I cannot believe Iowa will much longer lag 

 behind other states and be satisfied with the cheapest kind of dirt roads. 

 A state so rich in its resources and settled up by so wealthy and intelli- 

 gent a yeomanry will soon adopt some system of road building, no mat- 

 ter what the cost may be, that will give our farmers country roads that 

 will reduce the expense of transportation to the minimum and make get- 

 ting about the country a pleasure rather than a real trial. 



Two years ago I had occasion to make inquiry as to the highways 

 in Belgium. I found they were more permanent and quite as smooth as 

 our city pavements. I also was quite interested to learn that farm land no 



