THE NEW TRANSPORTATION. 147 



to be wondered at that things are coming to pass. Already 

 the public till has been tapped in many states, and this time 

 not by the spoilsmen, speculators and grafters, but by the 

 will of the people, for a wise and beneficent purpose. It is 

 at last recognized that the interest in good roads is a common 

 one that it is unjust and preposterous to shoulder the bur- 

 den wholly upon the rural population that it is not even nec- 

 essary always that the present generation should bear all the 

 burden when future generations will be equally benefited. 

 Bonds, therefore, are provided for. In one state as much as 

 three-fourths of the cost of the new roads is met from the 

 state treasury; in another 50 per cent, is borne by the state, 

 35 per cent, by the county and the remainder by the town. 

 Strange as it may seem, the farmers themselves have been 

 the hardest to convince of the desirability of good roads by 

 the new method, but at last it may be said that they also are 

 fairly aroused. To haul one ton one mile on the New York 

 Central cost two and two-fifths cents in 1869; to-day it costs 

 approximately a half a cent. Upon railways in general the 

 cost is three-fourths of a cent. But the average cost to the 

 farmer for every ton he hauls a mile over the roads at his 

 command is twenty-five cents 5,000 per cent, more than it 

 costs the railroad. No wonder the latter can make money 

 while the farmer loses it. Means have not been found by 

 which he can reduce the cost of his ton-mile haul to the rail- 

 road figure, and this is not to be expected, but whenever he 

 has the advantage of a good macadam road, laid out with 

 engineering skill, he reduces the cost to eight cents, a saving 

 of seventeen cents on every ton he hauls over the unit dis- 

 tance. Moreover, there is much subsidiary saving in the cost 

 of repair, and the longer wear of his wagons and harness; in 



