ROADS AND ROAD MAKING. 21 



And here allow me to testify to the admirable manner in which 

 that committee attended to its duty. At the time the awards were 

 made, I had read but two or three of the thirty essays submit- 

 ted for their decision, and that only at their request, and for a 

 special purpose, with reference to one of the prizes to be awarded. 

 More recently, within three or four weeks, I have read them all 

 with critical care, and am free to say that my judgment fully 

 confirms the conclusions to which the committee arrived, and 

 the impartial justice of the awards which were made. No com 

 mittee could have been more faithful or competent to discharge 

 the delicate duty assigned to it. 



And here let me commend to the public not a mere casual 

 perusal, but the careful study of those essays, printed both in a 

 form by themselves and inserted at the end of the last report of 

 the Board, so as to be easily accessible to every one who desires 

 to inform himself of the main principles which underlie the 

 most important art of road making. 



It would be easy to show the importance of this subject by 

 referring to tlie intimate connection which exists between the 

 value of land, the general prosperity of the community, and the 

 condition of its roads. Every farmer, every owner of real 

 estate, has a vital interest in the perfection of the roads which 

 lead to it, and especially the roads which lead from it to the 

 natural market. And this interest is a pecuniary one, not based 

 on considerations of comfort merely, but coming home to the 

 pocket in the shape of the wear and tear of teams and vehicles, 

 and the amount of draught required to move a load, always de- 

 pendent, to a very large extent, on the character and condition 

 of the surface of the road, and in the enhanced value of a farm 

 lying on a thoroughly good highway. So true is this, that it is 

 no exaggeration to say that there can be no better test of the 

 progress of civilization in a community than the condition of 

 its roads. Tliis close connection of the prosperity of the people 

 and the perfection of the means of communication between one 

 community and anotlier, is so well understood in Europe that 

 good roads may be said to be the rule there, and poor ones the 

 exception — just the reverse of what we see everywhere in this 

 country. Nor do I think it too much to say that the poorest 

 road I saw in Switzerland, Germany and France is better than 

 the best of our own. 



