V THIS WAS A NOTORIOUS MUD-HOLE IN MeDONOUGH COUNTY BEFORE WPA 

 '* workart converfed !t into a fine crushad-rock highway. 



VreA and Farm-to-Market 



IITERALLY "thousands" of Illinois 

 ■ farmers will be "dragged out of 

 the mud" and placed on all- 

 weather roads ere the 1936 spring rains 

 set in as a result of the farm-to-mar- 

 ket road program recently launched 

 under the Works Progress Adminis- 

 tration. This was revealed recently to 

 officials of the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation by Robert J. Dunham, Illinois 

 WPA administrator, following com- 

 pletion of a survey of farm-to-market 

 road projects now in operation under 

 the Federal agency. 

 The program, as it is being carried 



MANY COUNTIES HAVE MADE AVAIL- 

 abla their gravel pits, quarries, and rock- 

 crushers to further the WPA road surfacing 

 program, as evidenced by this photo snapped 

 at the Scott County rock quarry near Glasgow. 



By William H. Coiwell. WPA 



forward, indicates that by late spring 

 nearly 12,000 miles of unimproved sec- 

 ondary roads in the state Tvill have 

 been transformed into "yeai around" 

 improved roads, thus placing a larger 

 part of the state's rural population on 

 all-weather roads — a major objective 

 for years of the Illinois Agricvdtural 

 Association. 



The WPA program now in progress 

 includes not only surfacing of the 12,- 

 000 miles of unimproved roads, but 

 in many cases, grading, widening, 

 straightening and drainage. 



Following the example set last year 

 by JoDaviess County officials in 

 inaugurating their farm-to-market 

 road construction by pooling their 

 equipment and road funds with work 

 relief labor supplied by the Illinois 

 Emergency Relief Commission, the 

 majority of Illinois counties now 

 sponsoring similar projects under WPA 



The progrann initiated by the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association for building all- 

 weather farni>-to-market roads with federal 

 work relief funds is bearing fruit. At the 

 urgent request of tho Farm Bureau more 

 than $200,000,000 was ear-marked under 

 the terms of the Work Relief Bill for 

 rural road construction. Since last fall, 

 thousands of men formerly on relief rolls 

 have been at work quarrying rock, haul- 

 ing stone and gravel, and spreading it 

 on dirt roads throughout Illinois. Here 

 is another example of the lAA's service 

 to the farmers of tho state. — Editor. 



have patterned their program after 

 this plan. 



These projects sponsored by coun- 

 ties, townships, villages and road dis- 

 tricts, show a total of nearly $9,000,000 

 donated by the sponsors toward mak- 

 ing the program a success. To this, 

 the federal government through the 

 Illinois WPA has added approximately 

 $16,800,000 in the form of labor, super- 

 vision, materials and supplies. 



Farm-to-market road improvement 

 projects are now operating under WPA 

 in every Illinois county with the excep- 



"EVERYBODY OUT AND PUSH." A JO- 

 Daviess County mud road scene. Their Farm- 

 to-Market Road Graveling Program will do 

 away with teenes like this one. 



20 



I. A. A. RECORD 



