ROADS AND BRIDGES 285 



the whole people, or $3 per capita for those classes con- 

 cerned directly with agriculture. Of this sum the 

 larger part is used for maintenance and the smaller part 

 for construction. The cost of construction averages 

 approximately $500 per mile for earth roads, $1,500 for 

 gravel and sand-clay roads and $6,000 for stone, macadam 

 roads. 



For the purposes of estimating the cost of further 

 construction, it may be assumed that there are yet to 

 be constructed 10 per cent of the entire mileage, or 

 225,000 miles of macadam; 30 per cent, or 675,000 of 

 gravel and sand-clay roads; and 40 per cent, or 1,000,000 

 of earth roads. Using the above figures, the total cost 

 of macadam roads will be $1,350,000,000; of gravel 

 roads, $1,012,500,000, and of earth roads, $500,000,000, or 

 a total of $2,862,500,000. To this may be added an 

 estimate of $187,500,000 for the construction of bridges 

 and permanent culverts, making a total of $3,000,000,000. 

 By making the expenditure for construction alone 

 $100,000,000 annually, this construction work could 

 be completed in 30 years. The more highly developed 

 road surfaces will cause an increase in the cost of 

 maintenance also, but the increase in population will, 

 on the other hand, help to keep down the cost per capita. 

 The increased value of farm lands which will result from 

 the construction of a system of good roads will alone 

 more than justify the expense. 



Improved plans for farming; better farm machinery, 

 plants and animals; improved railway and water trans- 

 portation, rural mail delivery, rural telephones and the 

 greater wealth-producing non-agricultural industries, are 

 all so enormously increasing the country's wealth that 

 there is coming an abundance to draw upon for the needed 

 sums to invest in permanent roadways in rural as well 

 as in urban communities. If the rural communities can- 

 not with sufficient rapidity organize and improve their 



