Increased production has, in every case, followed road development along proper lines. This has been clearly demonstrated in all parts of the country, and I would respectfully refer any one wishing to secure authentic data along this line to Bulletin Ho. 393, issued by the United States Department of Agriculture from the Office of Public Reads and Rural Engineering. This bulletin is entitled "Economic Surveys of County Highway Improvement." The introductory paragraph states that,"In order to obtain direct information as to the benefits and burdens imposed upon communities through the construction of systems of improved roads, it was decided in 1909 by the Offic e of Public Roads to make a series of exhaustive studies in selected counties. These studies were designed to cover a period of approximately five years, or a sufficient period to show the road improvement from its onception until such time as the full measure of its usefulness could be demonstrated." Every one interested in the subject should secure a copy of this bulletin and read it from cover to cover. It is intensely interesting, and the information contained therein should be of value to every community in the United States engaged in or contemplating engaging in road improvement. ^R1!RARING F0R TH£ future /
In planning improvements along the line of the Old Spanish Trail, or any other highway subject to similar conditions, we must provide for a weight of traffic unknown in the past. The heavy field artillery and ar-> mored trucks of war, as well as the commercial freight haiiling trucks, used both in times of war and peace, give a wheel-load that the roads of yesterday and many of the roads of to-day cannot support.
Local conditions will, to a large extent, control the selection of the best type of surface to withstand this heavy traffic, but the need of an adequate base for all surfaced roads will be common to whatever type inay be selected, and I would urge that this point be carefully considered in all new construction.
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