ON THE OPEN COUNTRY 



monly roads were placed along farm 

 boundaries, not because that was the best 

 location, but because it was customary, 

 and at the time it made little difference. 

 There is probably not a town in New York 

 state or New England in which consider- 

 able portions of the main roads could not 

 be relocated to advantage. Any intelligent 

 man could sit down with a map of the town 

 spread on the kitchen table and do it after 

 supper. More direct routes could be found 

 between important points, steep hills 

 avoided, swamps and sandy stretches left 

 to one side. 



In most places there is absolutely 

 nothing to interfere with such radical and 

 fjir-reaching improvements. Land is cheap, 

 and condemnation proceedings are easy. 

 In many instances, the owners would be 

 glad to gpive the land. 



Thus far I have spoken chiefly of the 

 North Atlantic states, where land is hilly 

 and roads crooked. The complacent 

 dwellers on the flat interior prairies, with 

 their checkerboard section-line highways, 

 often imagine that their system is beyond 

 improvement. This is where they are worse 

 off than the New Englander, who knows 



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