!f 



352 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



not mean an impracticable, theoretica) Utopian road, or an ideal that 

 can not be realized. 



Mr. MacDoxald. There is no single adequate answer to that 

 question. 



Mr. Buchanan. Well, there ought to be. 



Mr. Anderson. Would not the answer to it depend upon the 

 locality, the quality of the soil, and drainage ? 



Mr. MacDonalu. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Anderson. And the amount of traffic would be one of the 

 elements that would enter into it. 



Mr. MacDonald. To answer such a question fairly and practically 

 I think that you would have to ask it about specific roads. 



Mr. Buchanan. No; can vou not make a concrete road, on any 

 ground, and can you not without any great cost ? It will cost a 

 little more on some grounds than others for the foundation, but I 

 can not see anything impracticable about the question. Here is a 

 county that may issue two or three million dollars worth of bonds 

 on the determination of bettering their roads, and I would like to 

 know whether it would be better for them to put in a concrete road, 

 a gravel road, or make — take the road that you were speaking of a 

 while ago— gravel road with a surface on it. Now, that is not an 

 impracticable question. 



Mr. MacDonald. Let me answer that from the viewpoint of 

 practical experience. I do not care to put any particular county in 

 the record. 



Mr. Buchanan. You can put my county in if you want to. We 

 recentl}^ had that problem up, Washington County, Tex. 



Mr. MacDonald. There is a county that issued bonds to build 

 roads. They issued bonds in large amounts — $2,000,000 or 83,000,000 

 on two different occasions. They have constructed concrete roads 

 only, and they are very good roads, but they have located some of 

 them close together, within a half mile of each other. 



It is my judgment that in that county — and we find now. with 

 the prices of agricultural products dropped to a fraction of what 

 they were when the bonds were issued, the people are finding the 

 taxes to support the cost of those roads, alon^ with the other expenses 

 of the land itself, a difficult financial problem. I have been over 

 that system of roads, and it is my judgment that they were right in 

 building concrete roads on their main arteries, but that every traffic 

 demand could have been satisfied on their side roads if they had 

 built gravel or some lesser cost roads. 



Mr. Bl'chanan. That is the answer to my question, the main arte- 

 ries should have been built of concrete. You feel, then, that the 

 earth roads are not satisfactory ? 



Mr. MacDonald. Not for imi)ortant roads, except in what we 

 might call the plains regions where there are large areas, which are 

 dry, are not subject to the action of frost, and wiiero the soils are 

 Ban«ly. 



Mr. lircHANAN. In other words, except in the regions where we 

 have natural roatls? 



Mr. MacDonald. Well, 1 think that is a very good answer for it. 

 WJH'n th»' trallic is too heavy in such localities for tiie natural soil 

 1 believe that a crushed stone or gravel road j)rotecteil with a bitumi- 

 nous surface will prove satisfactory. 





