V 



FARM MECHANICS. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

 ROAD CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE. 



THE value and importance of good roads is so great that 

 there are national, state and local highway associations, 

 formed for the agitation, promotion, location, and even the 

 building of good roads. The almost universal use of auto- 

 mobiles and trucks has been the greatest factor in making 

 the need for good roads one of the livest issues of the day. 

 Especially do we find much discussion of roads in the farm 

 papers. 



Good roads in a community are a sign of prosperity, and 

 prosperity is one result of good roads. The two seem to go 

 together. The ancient Romans, who built the famous road 

 known as the Appian Way, were wealthy people. While 

 they had no automobiles to drive over this paved highway, 

 still they knew they could haul loads, with their cumbersome, 

 wooden-wheeled carts drawn by cattle, much more cheaply 

 and easily over a good road than over a poor one. 



The same fact exists to-day. If a farmer has anything to 

 haul to market he can do it with a greater saving of time and 

 energy, and with less wear and tear on his vehicle, if the road 

 be a good one. 



United States Highways. Of the two million two hun- 

 dred thousand miles of roads hi the United States, the two 

 hundred thousand, or a very small per cent, are classed as 

 improved roads. So it is quickly apparent that the vast 

 majority of people in this country are wasting much time 

 and energy in getting about from place to place over poor 

 roads. 



This should not be so. The situation should be exactly 

 reversed, because the majority of people in the United States 



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