A SHORT HISTORY OF ROADS 



81 



delivery purposes, and especially for long hauls, is meeting 

 with high favor among farmers. 



50. Good roads are among the foremost conveniences of 

 rural life. Markets, schools, churches, neighbors, are 

 made more accessible by them. They save labor and time 

 and add value to land and produce. In Chapter IV we 

 learned that a community spirit was necessary in order 



THE AUTOMOBILE ON THE FARM. 



that individual farmers may receive larger returns for their 

 labor. But this community spirit has little chance to de- 

 velop without good roads. 



51. A short history of roads helps us to understand their 

 value. The ancient Romans covered Europe with mag- 

 nificent paved roads, two thousand years ago, in order to 

 move their armies easily from place to place. But after 

 the Roman Empire fell, these noble highways went to ruin ; 

 and for hundreds of years European roads were as bad as 

 America has ever seen. The modern good-roads movement 

 began in England, only a little before the time of the 

 American Revolution. Until that time, even England had 



