HZARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 335 
ut on a little gravel sometimes; and in one instance last year up in 
ed River Valley of the North, where they all said it was impossible 
to build any macadamized roads at all, partly because of lack of mate- 
rial and partly because the material they had was granite and destitute 
of the binding quality, we went there and built three roads of granite 
and made the filler, or the binder, out of the common soil, which is an 
exceedingly viscous soil. We spread it on in this way and found it 
made a consolidation of the mass that was extremely good, and have 
the best of reports from those roads. I visited one of the roads about 
a year after it was built and found they were in extremely good con- 
dition, and I have reports from the others. 
So that we have demonstrated for the Red River Valley that the 
have material that is very satisfactory for the work when combined wit 
the other substances that are so common there. And I will say in that 
connection that at Grand Forks, the last place where we put in an 
object-lesson road, we built for about $3,000 a mile a road that was as 
good in every respect as what they were building on the opposite side 
of the river at $12,000 a mile, except it was not quite so wide. They 
had let a contract on the other side of the river and the road was 
being built when I was there. 
Mr. Apams. You speak of these requests that come to you. Please 
state explicitly what they are and who they come from. 
Mr. Dover. They come from the road officials in nearly every case. 
Once ina while we get a request from the chambers of commerce. In 
the smaller cities of the West the chambers of commerce are active 
in introducing helpful improvements, not only pertaining to the cities 
in which the chambers are located, but the circumjacent territory, 
and in many instances preliminary negotiations are made through the 
secretaries of the chambers of commerce; but we do not go into any 
city. If we cooperate through their initiative, we locate the road out- 
side of the city and entirely in the agricultural region; but they have 
been helpful to us in the matter of assembling the cooperating forces. 
You understand that in order to carry on this work it is necessary to 
have the assistance of quite a number of elements. Of course the 
primary thing is the community itself. If the community does not 
wish anything, we do not do anything; if they do wish to have some- 
thing done and are able to do their part and we are ina position so 
that we can afford any aid, we alwaysdo it. And I regret exceedingly 
that I have not been able to go farther into the Southwest and to 
spread into the other States to a great extent. 
Mr. Apams. In how many States have you been? 
Mr. Doper. Twenty-two States altogether. 
Mr. Bowrkz. What are those States? 
Mr. Dopexr. Every one of the Southern States, except Florida and 
Texas—— 
Mr. Bowie. Where did you go in Alabama—what part of Alabama? 
Mr. Dover. Mobile, Montgomery—that is, they were the headquar- 
ters. I will say that in those Southern States we have the assistance 
of the national association and of the railroad company to an unusual 
extent, in this, that the railroad company offered us a train, at our 
service, fully equipped, and the manufacturers in the different parts 
of the country gave us 8 or 9 carloads of machinery. 
The national association, organized at Chicago in 1903, took the 
initiative in that respect. I want to say in this connection, that Mr. 
