The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1892-03-31
ANOTHER LITTLE CHAPTER
Of the Glorious Gospel Of
Good Roads.
The ClammOrfnG Voices
Increasing


tally concerns our citizens as good
roads and more of them. Bad roads,
and bad is the only name for two
thirds the roads in Washington
county at the present time, are the
most expensive luxury that can be
saddled upon community. Every
body who transacts business helps
pay the cost; the consumer more
than all.
With good roads every farmer
in the county would have from
twenty to thirty per cent more money
to spend each year, which result
would be accomplished either by his
ability to do with a lesser number of
horses and vehicles, or to increase
the earning power of each horse and
vehicle, to say nothing of the extra
work accomplished by the farmer and
his hands, who now waste fully two
months out of every twelve "waiting
for the roads to dry up"
When railroads were first intro
duced there was general cry raised
against them on the ground that they
would destroy the need for horses
and wagons Where is the man who
entertains this belief now?
The 1890 census eyeals the fact
that the farmers of this country had
in their possession IA, 213, 837 horses.
Making the utmost allowance in favor
of the farmer, and granting the
necessity for the liberal use of horse
power in the maintenance of agricul-
tural traffic, it is easily certain that
the farmers of the United States are
keeping at least two million horses
more than would be necessary to do
all the hauling between farm and
market, if the principal roads were
brought to a good condition. As
suming that each horse is fed the
ordinary army ration of hay and oats,
it requires 1900 tons of hay or
fodder, and $50, 900 bushels of oats
per day to feed these unnecessar,
animals, which in themselves have a
monetary value of $40, 900, 900.
The value of hay and oats fed TO these
horses per day is about $500, 900, or
something like s114, 600, 900 per year
one half of which sum would suffice
to keep all the important highways
in the country in perfect condition,
waterproof and weatherproof 1t
would reduce the total sum of farm
mortgages to nothing in less than
ten years.
The Commissioner of Agriculture,
in a recent annual report, says
"While our railway systems have
become the most perfect in the world,
the common roads of the United
States have been neglected, and are
inferior to those of any other civilized
country in existence. They are
deficient in every necessary
qualification that is an attribute of i
good road; in direction, in shape, in
Sc rvice, method of construction, and
most of all, in want of repair These
deficiencies have resulted not only
from an ignorance Of the true
principles of road building in force in
the several States, due to defective
legislation. The principle upon
which the different States have based
much of their road legislation is
known as the road tax system Of
personal service and Communication,
which is unsound as principle, unjust
in its operations, wasteful in its
practices, and unsatisfactory in it:
results. 1t is relic of feudalisn
borrowed from the statue labor o
England, and its results are to-da,
apparent in the neglected and i'll
conditioned common roads of th,
.couutry."
1t is a common thing some place
for two horses to haul load of thre,
tons of hay to markets six to flfteel
miles distant and return the same day
How often is this done in Washington
county? AJAX.