SUPPLEMENT TO THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



historic times by the Incas of Peru, when the 

 Carthaginian roads are described to them, and 

 those noble highways which radiated from 

 ancient Rome are mentioned, they listen as 

 though a fairy tale were being told; and when 

 they hear of the great highways in France, in 

 England and Switzerland and Germany, they 

 listen with the same incredulity with which 

 they receive the yarns which sailors and other 

 travellers are privileged to bring from beyond 

 the seas. They have never had better roads 

 than those which exist to-day, nor did their 

 fathers or grandfathers. Conservative men 

 that they are, they feel that what was good 

 enough in the olden time is good enough to-day; 

 therefore, with a kind of contempt which is 

 miserably pitiful, they "wallow in the mire of 

 their ways, paying excessive tolls, enduring, in 

 a word, a grinding taxation generation after 

 generation, without appreciating the burden 

 which rests upon them." 



It has been suggested that the American 

 roads be placed under a system of government 

 supervision, and be divided somewhat as the 

 French roads are: 



First, national roads. These to be built and 

 maintained by the general government, and be 

 located with reference to military and postal 

 requirements. 



Second, state roads. These to be built and 

 maintained by the several states, and connect 

 the various localities of the states, and be plan- 

 ned with reference to the national roads. 



Third, county or neighborhood roads. These 

 to be built and maintained by counties and 

 townships, and be located with reference to 

 the classes just mentioned. 



Those who advocate this idea say that if our 

 common roads were improved b} r some such 

 plan as this, we should soon have them in 

 charge of competent and educated engineers. 

 The national roads would probably be in charge 

 of army engineers; the state roads in charge of 

 engineers graduated from the agricultural and 

 mechanical schools; and the neighborhood 

 roads in charge of local men, who, once having 

 had the example set them how good roads are 

 built, would be entirely competent to do what 

 is usually necessary to be done in making a 

 road of lesser importance. But even under 

 such a plan as this, each county should have 

 an engineer to design the difficult work, deter- 

 mine upon location of routes, and inspect con- 

 structions and repairs. Strange as it may 

 seem, the proper location of a country highway 

 presents to the engineer more complex problems 

 than the location of a railroad. Country peo- 

 ple do not understand this, and are not willing 

 to believe it, therefore the cross roads store- 

 keeper and the village blacksmith are usually 

 thought to be entirely competent to decide 

 upon the best route for a country road. 



THE LOCATION OF HIGHWAYS. 



When a railroad is contemplated between 

 two distant points, careful surveys are made 

 by competent engineers before a route is finally 

 selected. All the preliminary lines which have 

 been run are carefully put down on a map, es- 



timates are made as to the cost of building and 

 v maintaining each, and further calculations 

 elaborated as to the traffic which each of the 

 lines would be able to secure and accommodate. 

 With all these facts and estimates before 

 them, the engineers and capitalists finally de- 

 cide where the railroad shall be located. 

 Upon such preliminary work time and money 

 are freely spent, for it is well known among all 

 railroad managers that a bad location is a very 

 expensive error to make at the outset, and one", 

 too, which is almost impossible to repair. 



When the roads which traverse parts of the 

 United States were originally laid out, they 

 were planned without reference to any great 

 system which should at once answer immediate 

 requirements and last for all time When the 

 population became denser, and roads, being 

 more travelled, were found to be inadequate, 

 there was an effort made in all such places to 

 build permanent roads, but in the majority of 

 cases the old haphazard location of the roads 

 was deemed to be good enough, and these tracks 

 through the forests and over the prairies were 

 adopted as permanent highways. As traffic 

 again increased, these roads were again found 

 to be inadequate, and the statesmen of the 

 country saw very plainly that the poor roads 

 which prevailed nearly all over the United 

 States seriously menaced the prosperity of the 

 people. Then began on a very large scale a 

 plan of highway improvement by which vari- 

 ous states should be connected with each other. 

 Before these great national roads assisted by 

 the government had been completed, the rail- 

 way came into being, and the attention of men 

 was directed to making these new iron high- 

 ways. The great systems of common roads 

 were neglected, and the care and construction 

 of country roads passed back to each count}' 

 and township, and so they have remained, 

 neglected, uncared for, a heavy tax on land 

 and all that land produces, and the great con- 

 tributing cause which takes to the overcrowd- 

 en cities from the farms and villages the most 

 vigorous youths and the most sturdy maidens. 

 This system of properly locating and build- 

 ing common highways having been abandoned 

 some half-century ago, it has been incumbent 

 upon this generation to take up the work 

 where it was then left off. In locating the 

 railroad an engineer needs to bear in mind that 

 the railroad must be approached wherever there 

 is to be a station. Stations are usually several 

 miles apart, and therefore this part of his 

 problem is so simplified that he can locate his 

 road with regard entirely to the general topo- 

 graphical features of the country, and then es- 

 tablish the stations at such places as may be 

 eas3 T of approach. But the engineer locating a 

 common highway must bear in mind that his 

 road must be accessible on both sides as far as 

 it stretches. See what a difference this makes! 

 The railroad engineer, in running up a valley, 

 can hug high hills on one side, with a turbulent 

 watercourse on the other; but such a location 

 would be out of the question for the highway 

 engineer, for those who are to use his road 



