HO THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



were duplicated in nearly every state in the Union. To-day 

 cities, towns and rural districts realize that they are mutually 

 interested. The building of good roads has been taken hold 

 of in earnest by many state Legislatures. The privilege of 

 working out the road tax is being rapidly abolished and a 

 cash system substituted. The National Government has cre- 

 ated the office of Public Road Inquiries, and made it a part 

 of the Department of Agriculture. Several of the states have 

 enacted laws by which the Commonwealth pays 50 per cent, 

 of the cost of road-building, the counties 35 per cent, and the 

 to\vns the remainder. The offices of pathmaster and road su- 

 pervisor are being abolished and the work of construction is 

 being placed directly or indirectly under the management 

 of competent engineers. It has been found that the steep 

 grades so often met with along our highways may readily 

 be reduced or avoided. Indeed, the re-location of many of 

 the old roads is an important part of the good roads propa- 

 ganda. Recent surveys have shown that the sides of rugged 

 mountains are often susceptible to their very summits of 

 roads up which a horse could trot without difficulty. 



The railroad people who so strenuously opposed canal con- 

 struction have within recent years become warm advocates 

 of good public highways. Every railroad is sustained by the 

 business which it secures from a narrow strip of land run- 

 ning along either side of its right of way. In times past 

 these puffing powers looked upon themselves as lordly bene- 

 factors, took such traffic as came to them, and felt sorry for 

 the farmers who were not in a position to avail themselves 

 of the general opportunities which were offered. To-day 

 a wiser policy prevails. It has become apparent to the man- 

 agers whose business it is to earn dividends for their stock- 



