NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XII 743 
could have all the advantages of a graded school in connection with a high 
school. Central schools of this kind are now being established in some 
sections of the country, where good roads permit the pupils of an entire 
township being transported to them daily from their homes, and with 
the extension of improved roads this school system would become general. 
It can thus be seen that of the three reforms which in the opinion of the 
president have been shown to be urgently desirable, road improvement is 
the most important, eCs' it would aid in making the others practicable. 
That highway improvement is the most important economic reform 
has long been urged by the farmers, who, through their principal organi- 
zation, the National Grange, have been pesistently agitating for the adop- 
tion of a policy of federal aid for good road construction and mainten- 
ance. The declaration by the country life commission that the establish- 
ment of a fully serviceable highway system is a matter of national con- 
cern, absolutely essential to our internal development, should serve to 
hasten the enactment of legislation providing for the creation of a 
national highway commission, and making liberal appropriations for car- 
rying on its work. 
The direct connection between good roads and the value of farm lands 
is shown in a striking manner in Bulletin No. 38 of the United States 
Department of Agriculture. This bulletin gives the results of an investiga- 
tion by the office of public roads of that department relating to public- 
road mileage, revenues, improved roads, and expenditures in the United 
States in the year 1904, and the information contained therein is of great 
importance in connection with the movement on behalf of the systematic 
improvement of the public highways. 
The returns from various states show that in nearly every case the 
states having the highest percentage of improved roads have the largest 
population per mile of road, thus showing that better roads are a powerful 
factor in encouraging the settlement of unused lands, especially in sparsely 
populated sections of the country. Good roads are also an important in- 
fluence in retaining in the farming districts the desirable elements who 
might otherwise drift into the towns and cities. As the price of farm 
lands depends on their productivity, accessibility to markets, and popula- 
tion engaged, or desiring to engage, in agricultural pursuits, it follows 
that road improvement, by attracting additional settlers, and giving them 
better facilities for reaching their markets, directly tends to increase the 
values of all farm lands within the radius of the roads improved. 
A comparison of the percentage of the improved roads of the various 
states shows that the average percentage of the improved roads in all 
states where farm land is worth less than $20 per acre is only 1.8 per 
cent; whereas in the states where the acreage value is more than $20, 
improved roads constitute an average of 9 per cent of the total mileage. 
While there may be minor causes of varieties in the value of farm 
lands, it is an undoubted fact that as a general rule the higher values of 
certain states are largely due to their superior roads. Records on file in 
the office of public roads show that farm lands have been known to ad- 
vance in value from oO to 500 per cent on account of the improvement of 
the roads connecting them with market towns. 
When the facts secured by the Department of Agriculture become 
