I shook my head.
"I don't believe it," I said. "I simply don't believe it! How could any nation afford to keep up such roads!"
Owen drew me to a seat—we had dismounted to examine a fountain and see the flowers. He produced pencil and paper.
"I'm no expert," he said. "I can't give you exact figures. But I want you to remember that the trees pay. Pay! These roads, hundreds of thousands of miles of them, constitute quite a forest, and quite an orchard. Nuts, as Hallie told you, are in growing use as food. We have along these roads, as beautiful clean shade trees, the finest improved kinds of chestnut, walnut, butternut, pecan—whatever grows best in the locality."
And then he made a number of startling assertions and computations, and showed me the profit per mile of two rows of well-kept nut trees.
"I suppose Hallie has told you about tree farming?" he added.
"She said something about it—but I didn't rightly know what she meant."
"Oh, it's a big thing; it has revolutionized agriculture. As you're sailing over the country now you don't see so many bald spots. A healthy, permanent world has to keep its fur on."
I was impressed by that casual remark, "As you're sailing over the country."
"Look here, Owen, I think I have the glimmer of an idea. Didn't the common use of airships help to develop this social consciousness you're always talking about—this general view of things?"