154 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



Jn some cases the roads are laid out in squares. In this case it re- 

 sults in having nearly all the roads go straight up the hill from the 

 railroad for 400 to 800 feet. 



When new grades can often be established at so small a cost 

 it is poor economy for generation after generation to continue go- 

 ing straight up the hills rather than around them. There is need 

 for a road system laid out in each county that will connect the 

 farms with the towns, rather than connect cities with cities. The 

 latter are, of course, needed, but their chief use is 'by city persons 

 and not by farmers. They can never solve the farm problem be- 

 cause they serve so small a percentage of the farmers. 



A road census, made in 1904 by the Office of Public Roads, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, revealed the fact that 

 there were 2,151,000 miles of public roads in the United States, of 

 which only 7.14 per cent were improved. This census also showed 

 that the total annual expenditure for roads in the year 1904 was 

 $79,000,000, or an average of about $37 per mile, and of this 

 amount $19,000,000 was represented by taxes that were payable 

 in labor on the roads, and this, in fact, reduces the cash expenditure 

 for that year to an average of about $27 per mile. (Ag. Dept. 

 Y. B. 1910.) 



How Local Public Roads Have Been Obtained. For some 

 time public sentiment through the country has been growing in 

 favor of a reform in the old system of public road administration. 

 This sentiment first found tangible expression in a law passed by 

 the New Jersey Legislature in 1891, providing among other things 

 for an annual appropriation of $75,000 from the State Treasury. 

 The State appropriations have gradually been increased each year 

 until the amount available from that source for State aid in road 

 building in 1910 was about $500,000. 



Following closely the example of New Jersey, Massachusetts in 

 1892, Connecticut in 1895, and New York in 1898, established 

 State highway departments with State aid, or took steps looking to 

 that end. New York State affords a striking instance of develop- 

 ment from a purely local to a highly centralized system. 



Under the present law, which became effective January 1, 

 1909, a State highway commission, consisting of three members, 

 was provided for, together with a system of about 2,800 miles of 

 State roads, to be improved and maintained solely at the expense of 

 the State. The county roads are to be improved jointly by the 

 State, the county, and the towns. The town highways are to be 

 improved and maintained by the towns with funds locally raised 

 and supplemented by the State aid apportionment, which is to 

 amount to from one-third to one-half of the entire cost, according 

 to the assessed valuation of real and personal property for each mile 

 of highways in the town. Under this new law the State highway 

 commission has supervision, either directly or indirectly, over every 

 mile of public highway in the State. 



While the funds for the town highways are expended locally, 

 still they are under the supervisory direction of an official of the 



