Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-06-08

This is not all by any means, for we are
selling railroad ties cord-wood, timber and
lumber, and many other smaller but impor-
tant things taken from the farm. But TAX
ing the articles have enumerated from the
census and reducing them to tons, we have
the weight Of 81, 1896 tons. Half of this will
be consumed on the farm, but the balance,
1857 tons is to be hauled somewhere for
sale, and here comes in the use of the pub
lie roads. In their average condition what
does this hauling cost? Distance S to 25
miles, average Is, and it can't be done for
much, if any, less than SIS per ton-15, 697
tons at SIS, is 1913, 4S5. Then add your tim
Der, lumber, wood and ties, your travel to
mill, store, postoffice, church and social re-
lations, and it is safe to put the whole in
round numbers at $50, 900 annually in Fair
fax county. Can you afford to make good
roads Much of the time in winter, when
the work of the team is not demanded in
the fields and this produce should be
moved, the teams are idle in the stable,
because the roads are impossible with
loads The work has to be delayed until
spring comes, and the ground settles, when
the work in the fields should begin. How
much of the planting is thus delayed beyond
the proper time, for with insufficient teams.
the work has to stop or extra teams en-
ployed and fed to take the produce to mar
ket, for the cash must be had for She ever
pressing needs of family, hired Aen and
taxes? The loss to the crops occasioned byy
being put in too late cannot be measured,
but whatever it may be would have been
saved if that produce could have been tran
sported to market during the winter season.
Our hauling and travel costs, as it appears,
$50, 900 annually.
repeat the proposition. Make the roads
SO that 5000 pounds can be hauled with
the same ease as 500 can be now, and
this item is reduced one-half. Forty thou
sand dollars worth of team labor, wear and
tear of vehicles and horse flesh saved is
worth trying for.
The number of farms in Fairfax is 1872,
and their average value is So, 100, and the
average productions $615. A saving of
$40, 900 in the county represents 1926, 90
to each farm. An added tax of 20 cents
on $1OO is six dollars and twenty cents for
each average farm, and would inaugurate
system of road improvement which in
ten years would give US 100 miles of brok-
en- stone or graveled, solid roads leading
to MARKET and all principal points in the
county.
Can you not afford to make this outlay of
$6,2 year in view of the saving to be
effected, and the enhanced value of lands
sure to come from such improvement,
which alone will many times reimburse
the amount? There can be but one an
swer: 1t will pay better than any invest
ment that can be made.
One thing we might as we'll dismiss from
our minds at once. It is the idea of max
ing good roads by system of impressed
labor. 1t is delusion and snare. Men
may be compelled to come out and put in
two or three days of time on the roads, but
the work will not be there. In Fairfax we
| pay about 81, 900 year to get about as
muc4 honest labor as $1,000 would pay
for. Any effective system must be based
| upon tax on property, and property can
| we'll afford it.
Fairfax county and all this region near
to the city of Washington,i is surely destin-
ed to become wealthy and populous. We
can hasten that day and many of us real
ize and enjoy some of that prosperity, if we
inaugurate liberal and wise expenditure
upon our public roads. We can also re-
tard it by a do-nothing policy resulting
| from an idea that we can't afford it. We
will have to do it or give place to others.
| My exhortation is, to cling to your patri-
mony, and take part in making this fair
section of our State what its location and
capabilities promise. Do not abandon the
old State, There is prosperity, riches,
content and happiness coming. We can
feel now the pulsations of o new life
awakening new energies and enterprises.
Should you leave now for the over land
ed West, the time will come when on the
blizzard-swept prairies you read and hear
of V1rginia's prosperity, your regrets may
be unwilling, for your inheritance will be
in the hands of others reaping the reward
of their liberality which should have been
yours. -Amae1dcan Farmer.