the right time and the use of a King Drag, the road can be kepL in 

 good condition at small cost. 



S. E. Bradt, Chairman of the Good Roads Committee of the Illinois 

 Bankers Association has for a number of years made a very careful 

 study of hard roads. In a recent letter to the writer he states, 



"Our macadam roads have been very uniformly ten feet wide and 

 nine or ten inches thick after they were rolled. We put on about 

 eleven or twelve inches of material. They cost from three to four 

 thousand dollars per mile depending upon the length of haul and whether 

 they are built of stone furnished by the State at a cost of 62 1 cents 

 per yard or stone that we purchased at a cost of about $1.00 per 

 yard. This cost includes grading." 



"The concrete road which we built last fall cost about $7,500 

 exclusive of the preliminary grading. The state furnished the mixer 

 and superintendent and two men to operate the mixer. The road is 

 12 feet wide and 6| inches thick. It was built in October when labor 

 was scarce and we were obliged to pay for 10 hours work and only 

 able to work an average of 8| hours. There was also considerable 

 rain which caused delay, making the work quite expensive. We 

 could easily have saved at least $500 in labor and material had we 

 been working under favorable conditions. On each side of the road 

 is a macadam shoulder 2 feet wide and 6 inches thick." 



Following are the details of the cost: 



2274 barrels cement $2274 . 00 



Sand and gravel 1671 . 00 



Expansion joints 160. 00 



Grading 440 . 00 



Labor 2216.00 



Watchman 125 . 00 



Coal, lumber, oil and waste 152 .00 



Car-fare for the laborers 50. 00 



Cost of macadam shoulders 500 .00 



$7588.00 



In the above is included the cost of the labor furnished by the state. 



Concrete roads have been built in Michigan complete for $10,000 

 per mile. Rock-macadam roads in Missouri, Ohio, Michigan and 

 Wisconsin have cost from $3000 to $4000 per mile. Gravel roads in 

 Michigan and Iowa, where local gravel is near by, have cost from 

 $1000 to $2000 per mile. The cost, however, of a permanent road 

 will depend entirely upon the character of the material used, its accessi- 

 bility and the necessary amount of grading to be done. 



While the horse will undoubtedly continue to be the main motive 

 power in the farmer's field for many years to come, the touring car, 

 the runabout, the auto-truck and tractor will supplant the horse on 

 the roads very generally in the near future. The march of progress 

 will neither stop nor stay, nor will the American people turn back in 

 the onward movement to sustain their supremacy. Good roads 

 are as necessary to the safe and profitable utilization of these new 

 methods of transportation as the well ballasted railroad bed is to the 



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