it. Some of the farms five and
six miles from town have quadrupled in value." In Alabama the same thing
has been found true. "The result of building these roads," said Mayor
Drennen of Birmingham, "is that the property adjoining them has more
than doubled in value." That wise financier, D. F. Francis, President of
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, when suggesting that Missouri would
do well to bond herself for one hundred million to build good roads,
said: "The average increase in the value of the lands in Missouri would
be at least five dollars per acre." Taking President Francis at his
word, the difference between the value of Missouri before and after the
era of good roads would buy up the four hundred and eighty-four state
banks in Missouri eleven times over. What President Francis estimates
Missouri would be worth with good roads over and above what her farms
are now worth would buy all the goods that the city of St. Louis
produces in a year. In other words, the estimated gain to Missouri would
be more than two hundred and twenty million dollars.

Passing the increased value of lands, look at the equally vital question
of increased values of crops. Take first the crops that would be raised
on lands not cultivated today but which would be cultivated in a day of
good roads. Look at Virginia, where only one-third of the land is being
cultivated; the value of crops which it is certain would ultimately be
raised on land that is now unproductive would amount to at least sixty
million dollars. The general passenger agent of the Oregon Railway and
Navigation Company said recently that his lines were crying out for
wheat to ship to China; "we have about reached the limit of our
facilities; twelve or fifteen miles is the only distance farmers can
afford to haul their wheat to us. Make it possible for them to haul it
double that distance and you will double the business of our railway."
And the business of local nature done by a railroad is a good criterion
of the prosperity of the country in which it operates.

Crops now raised on lands within reach of railways would of course be
enhanced in value by good roads; more loads could be taken at less cost;
weather interferences would not enter into the question. But of more
moment perhaps than anything else, a vast amount of land thus placed
within quick reach of our towns and cities would be given over to
gardening for city markets, a line of agriculture immensely profitable,