r 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 width and depth to which the material is to be spread
on, and the method of construction. All these things vary so much in the
different states that it is impossible to name the exact amount for
which a mile of a certain kind of road can be built.

The introduction in recent years of improved road-building machinery has
enabled the authorities in some of the states to build improved stone
and gravel roads quite cheaply. First-class single-track stone roads,
nine feet wide, have been built near Canandaigua, New York, for $900 to
$1,000 per mile. Many excellent gravel roads have been built in New
Jersey for $1,000 to $1,300 per mile. The material of which they were
constructed was placed on in two layers, each being raked and thoroughly
rolled, and the whole mass consolidated to a thickness of eight inches.
In the same state macadam roads have been built, for $2,000 to $5,000
per mile, varying in width from nine to twenty feet and in thickness of
material from four to twelve inches. Telford roads fourteen feet wide
and ten to twelve inches thick have been built in New Jersey for $4,000
to $6,000 per mile. Macadam roads have been built at Bridgeport and
Fairfield, Connecticut, eighteen to twenty feet wide, for $3,000 to
$5,000 per mile. A telford road sixteen feet wide and twelve inches
thick was built at Fanwood, New Jersey, for $9,500 per mile. Macadam
roads have been built in Rhode Island, sixteen to twenty feet wide, for
$4,000 to $5,000 per mile.

Massachusetts roads are costing all the way from $6,000 to $25,000 per
mile. A mile of broken stone road, fifteen feet wide, costs in the state
of Massachusetts about $5,700 per mile, while a mile of the same width
and kind of road costs in the state of New Jersey only $4,700. This is
due partly to the fact that the topography of Massachusetts is somewhat
rougher than that of New Jersey, necessitating the reduction of many
steep grades and the building of expensive retaining walls and bridges,
and partly to the difference in methods of construction and the
difference in prices of materials, labor, etc.

Doubtless the state of New Jersey is building more roads and better
roads for less money per mile than any other st