OCR Text |
Show ROADS PAY FOR THEMSELVES Incidents Related Whereby Several Southern Farm ere Profited by Improvements Im-provements Made by State. The direct effect that changing bad road Into good roads baa upon land values and marketing prices, aa wull as the general economic welfare of the community, Is shown In aeveral concrete Illustrations which were gathered by the United States department de-partment of agriculture. In Lee county, Virginia, a farmer owned 100 acrea which he offered to sell for It,-800. It,-800. In 1908 his road waa Improved, and although the farmer fought the Improvement, he has since refused $3,000 for Ms farm. A near by tract of 1S8 acres Is said to have been Bold for $6,000. After road Improvement, the Mitio farm was aold for $9,000. In Johnson county, Alabama, the people voted a bond Issue for $250,000 for road Improvement The selling value at that time was $9 to $15 per acre. The selling price la now from li to $25 per acre. In another state, two farmers living liv-ing at equal distance from a cotton market learned by telephone that cotton cot-ton had gone up In price one dollar per bale. The farmer on the bad road hauled one bale of cotton which was all be could get over that road. The other farmer on the good road was able to haul four balea. The man on the good road gained four dollars by the rise In price, while his neighbor neigh-bor on the bad road gained only one dollar. A farmer In Sullivan county, Tennessee, had 100 bushela of Irish potatoea which he Intended to market j during the winter. Owing to bad roada, he waa unable to haul the potatoes pota-toes at all. They rotted In the cellar. In the meantime, the price of potatoes pota-toes at a market point went as high aa $1.40 per but el. |