es propelled by steam, electric, and
gasoline motors have become an important factor in the delivery of goods
in nearly every city of Europe and America. They are not only speedier
than the horse and wagon, but their keeping costs less. They are
economical only on good roads. The bicycle, no longer a plaything,
exerted a very decided effect on transportation when the "pneumatic" or
inflated rubber tire came into use. Through the bicycle came the demand
for good roads; and several thousand miles of the best surfaced roads
are built in the United States each year.

The ordinary highways or roads, the paved streets of the large cities
excepted, are popularly known either as "dirt" roads or "macadamized"
roads, the latter name being applied to about every sort of graded
highway that has been surfaced with broken rock. Most of the roads of
western Europe are of this character. They are laid out with easy
grades, and a thick foundation of heavy stone is covered with smaller
pieces of broken rock, the whole being finished off with a top-dressing
of fine material. Once built, the expense of keeping them in good order
is less than that of keeping a dirt road in bad order.

Most of the country highways of the United States are dirt roads that
are deep with dust in dry weather and almost impassable at the breaking
of winter. Roads of this character are such a detriment that grain
farming will not pay when the farm is distant twenty miles or more from
the nearest railway. Many a farmer pays more to haul his grain to the
nearest railway station than from the railway station to London.

Since it has become apparent that the commercial development of many
agricultural regions depends quite as much on good wagon roads as upon
railways and expensive farming machinery, there has been a disposition
to grade and rock-surface all roads that are important highways.
Intercommunication becomes vastly easier; the cost of transportation is
lessened by more than one-half; and the wear and destruction of vehicles
is reduced to a minimum. In every case the improvement of the road is
designed to increase traffic by making a given power do more work in
less time.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

What have been the effects of Bessemer steel on the carrying power of
railways?--on cheapening freight rates?

What would be some of the effects first apparent were a large city like
London or New York suddenly cut off from railway communication?

What is