M4 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



of building and the subsequent experience of hauling over 

 these roads stimulated a movement in many of the localities 

 visited to continue the good work for themselves, thus prov- 

 ing the efficacy of the "good roads train." The wisdom of 

 the enterprise is no longer questioned, and to-day there is not 

 a great railroad company in the land but is actively and prac- 

 tically interested in the movement for good highways. 



The National Good Roads Association is carrying on an 

 active and effective propaganda. Conventions, county, state 

 and national, are held from time to time, covering every sec- 

 tion of the country; public speakers proclaim the advantages 

 of good roads and the disadvantages of bad roads, and statis- 

 ticians back up the argument by figures and facts which are 

 not to be gainsaid ; literature is scattered broadcast ; gov- 

 ernors and legislators, both state and national, are furnished 

 with information, and pressure is exerted by every hon- 

 orable means and in every conceivable direction, stimulating 

 a sentiment for the scientific construction of our country 

 roads. 



The League of American Wheelmen, with its branches in 

 every state, influenced tens of thousands of people to become 

 advocates of good roads who had never before had occasion 

 to consider the matter at all. And now that the wheel is no 

 longer the popular property that it formerly was, the auto- 

 mobile is efficiently taking its place as a factor in the good 

 roads movement. 



When the highest authorities present the evidence to the 

 taxpayers of a state that bad roads cause a loss to them of 

 $10,000,000 every year, as in North Carolina, or $3,000,000, 

 as in the little state of Maryland, or $10,000,000, as in New 

 York, and that this loss falls on all classes alike, it is not 



