while mulberry trees may be seen along the roads in France, serving the twofold purpose of food for silkworms and shade. If some of our many varieties of useful, fruitful, and beautiful trees were planted along the roads in this country, and if some means could be devised for protecting the product, enough revenue could be derived therefrom to pay for the maintenance of the road along which they throw their grateful shade.
The improvement of country roads is chiefly an economical question, relating principally to the waste of effort in hauling over bad roads, the saving in money, time, and energy in hauling over good ones, the initial cost of improving roads, and the difference in the cost of maintaining good and bad ones. It is not necessary to enlarge on this subject in order to convince the average reader that good roads reduce the resistance to traffic, and consequently the cost of transportation of products and goods to and from farms and markets is reduced to a minimum.
The initial cost of a road depends upon the cost of materials, labor, machinery, the
