220 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



There may be men who would take issue with the statement that the 

 state is about to begin with the building of permanent roads. The main 

 work done for the last ten years was done along the line of dirt road 

 improvement. I find where the earth roads have been brought up to 

 the highest standard as a rule, they are beginning to talk about a more 

 permanent type of road. I do not know how soon this may come, but 

 I do not believe from observations taken all over the state that it will be 

 a long time before a beginning is made along the line of permanent con- 

 struction. I hope when it comes it will come along safe and sane lines 

 and will not involve the issuing, at least to begin with, of long time bond 

 issues for short time roads, which in my judgment some of the states of 

 the east have done. 



The Chairman: If there is any question anyone wishes to ask 

 Mr. MacDonald I know he will be pleased to answer them. 



Mr. J. E. Mershon : It has been suggested by a local organiza- 

 tion here that a good plan to begin our road work in Iowa is to 

 have the state appropriate money for the highway commission 

 that may be used to offer prizes to be given to localities or to 

 counties for the construction of roads that may be approved in 

 its methods of construction by the highway commission, and I 

 would like to ask Prof. MacDonald if he knows if such plans 

 have been successfully carried out in other states. 



Prof. MacDonald: I will answer that question by saying that 

 the only work that is attracting the attention of the country at 

 large is that which has been done under the plan mentioned by 

 you of the state aiding the local communities with machines, as 

 prizes, which is along the line you mention. For different classes 

 of roads they offer certain rewards, and all of the states of the 

 east who are taking up the work at all have adopted this prin- 

 ciple of state aid, and we have it now in the middle west — Wiscon- 

 sin, Minnesota, Michigan — these are the nearest states. We have 

 the same principle in our road work, and it is unquestionably a 

 very favorable way in which to begin work of this character. 



Mr. Henry Wallace : I would like to ask Mr. MacDonald if he 

 has any information as to the annual cost of keeping up macad- 

 amized roads — annual upkeep? 



Mr. MacDonald: Mr. Chairman — Mr. Wallace is a long-time 

 friend of this macadam proposition, and if he had been here 

 sooner he would have heard my statement that macadam, I did 

 not think, would be of use on account of the expense of main- 

 taining these roads, and in my judgment the upkeep of macad- 

 amized roads is too great to consider it as a permanent type of 

 road except in some localities where they have the stone along 



