SUPPLEMENT TO THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



the entire state could be put in very good con- families of the men who do what is callec 

 dition. The roads in Jfew York are not better laborers' work are lodged, when he sees thei 

 than they are in other states. They are a great huddled together in great, badly smelling ten 

 deal worse than in some of the New England ment houses, he marvels that they shoull 

 States, for instance, and I therefore assume that prefer this to life in the country where fresl 

 this estimate can be followed as a guide in air is free and wholesome food is cheap but 

 determining what would be needed to complete there can be little doubt that there is a prefer^ 

 in the whole country excellent roads, which, ence for this kind of existence in cities even 

 once constructed, could be cheaply and easily though it be a fact that work is harder to get 

 maintained. Considering the area of New there than in the country, and not a bit more 

 York and the density of population, and using regular. Not only is thi's the case with labor- 

 these figures in the problem, I estimate that ers, but we find, whenever we choose to inquire 

 $400,000,000 would give us a good system of that the best youths born of country families 

 common roads all over the country. This is a early begin to feel a hankering for" town life 

 great deal of money, but it doesn't seem great If thev staid at home to till the soil or th 

 compared with the values which would be en- fields there would not be this scarcity of a°ri 

 hanced by its wise expenditure. And right cultural laborers which has just been noted 

 here it may be noted that the cost of maintain- but no sooner does an adventuresome youth i 

 ing and repairing a highway properly con- the country begin to feel the down upon hi' 

 structed in the first instance ought never to be cheeks changing into whiskers than he is fired 

 greater for a year than one per cent, of its first with an ambition to go to some city and become 

 . cost In the two items of horses and vehicles, a member of the great bustle and* strife which 

 as 1 have shown, the increased value of these the close competition of men with men 

 properties would more than pay for the im- produces. This doesn't mean that he is afraid 

 provement: but it is not the greatest value, by of the hard work that has to be done on the 

 any means. The effect upon the horses and farm, for none but a fool would believe that a 

 vehicles used on roads would be more immedi- man to succeed even moderatelv does not have 

 ate and more direct, and therefore I have called to work just as hard in town as* in the country, 

 particular attention to this phase of the subject, and farmers' boys are not fools— at least they 

 Ihe enhancement of the value of real estate have not proved'themselves to be in America 

 would be so great that the items I have men- for the great majority of our distinguished and 

 tioned would seem so insignificant as not to be successful men have* been recruited not from 

 worth discussing. In one neighborhood alone the colleges and universities of learning, but 

 —that of Union county, New Jersey— the im- from these very fields which now suffer because 

 provement oi the roads has changed values so there are not men enough to cultivate them 

 greatly that men who a few years ago were Among those who conspicuously advocate 

 struggling farmers, with earnings so scant that the idea that the national government should 

 it was difficult to make two ends meet, are take a part and lead in this matter of road im* 

 now not only well-to-do, but absolutely rich, provement is General Bov Stone, of New York 

 1 hey can sell their crops at good profits: they the engineer and inventor The restless 

 can grow more profitable crops; they can get activity of General Stone's mind has been 



:S 



I 



these crops quickly and cheaply to market; directed to this problem for many years, and 



and their lands, for which at low prices it was he has recently secured the co-operation of 



formerly almost impossible to find purchasers, several prominent statesmen in Washington 



are now m demand at prices which, compared a project soon to be formulated in a bill 



of 



in 



to be 



with the old order of things, seem fabulous, brought before congress. This bill proposes the 

 and the mere mention of which suggests a most formation of a National Highway Commission, 



unaccustomed condition of opulence 



THE SOCIAL SIDE. 



These are a few of the direct economic 

 problems in which the roads are factors. 

 There is another one worthy of mention of even 



which shall examine the whole subject, formu- 

 late a plan for a National School of Roads and 

 Bridges, and make an exhibit attheWorld's Fair. 

 The suggestion that it shall be shown during 

 the World's Fair that America is alive to the 



greater importance. It is hard to put any necessity of improving her interior method of 



money estimate upon the value of an improved communication is particularly happv.. It is 



social condition; indeed, it is impossible. But true that the larger proportion of" foreign 



our bad roads have so serious an influence upon visitors who will come to America in 1893 will 



country life and the happiness of the men and see only such highways as railroads and city 



the women who lead rural lives that in all streets; but those who* come really to study us 



probability a purely social aspect of the case is and to measure our civilization and general 



more important than any other. One can progress will go further afield, and they, of 



scarcely pick up a newspaper nowadays with- course, will see the disgraceful condition of our 



out reading that m farming communities it is common roads. It will be well worth while to 



most difficult to get competent and trustworthy show to such as these that we are alive to the 



agricultural laborers. When any thoughtful importance of the subject, and aware of the 



observer sees in the great cities how the reproach of our wretched ways. 



*** Extra copies of this Supplement will be furnished in limited quantities free; large 

 quantities at actual cost of printing. Prices made known on application. 



T. H. 4 W. A. WHITE, PRINTERS, JAMESTOWN, N. Y. 



