The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-01-29

THE FARMERS AND THE ROADS.
Some Significant Facts and Figures
from !. 3. Potter's Book.
The League Of American Wheel
men has performed q public service
n issuing. through its committee
On highway improvements, two
pamphlets on the roads Of this
country, their condition and their
.ure. The second pamphlet, en-
titled "The Gospel of Good Roads, "
is a direct appeal to the American
farmer by Mr.. Isaac B. Potter, the
chairman of the wheelmen's CON-
mittee, and it deserves the atten-
ion of every country-man and of
not A few dwellers in towns and
DIV for the cure of improbable
farming hes in the farmers hands.
The common road, he points out,
~ part OF the machinery of agr1cul-
ture, as much so as the farm wagon,
md anv improvements in the roads
reduce the cost of getting farm pro-
duce to market, and thus save to
the farmer more of the value of
those products.
"A bad road," saws Mr.. Potter,
lis an expensive thing. To NAM
tain the 10000, 900 horses of this
Countrywide figures arc those of
the census OF 1SS0-costs "a, ,000,- :
900 day, so that every day that a
horse stands idle when he might
work is waste to be checked.
Furthermore. everv unnecessary
horse Is waste Of material, and
Mr.. Potter estimates that 1000. 900
horses not absolutely necessary are
used on American farms. needless
cvr"nditure Of 1900. 900 day, ex.
elusive Of the original cost of the
horses. On the smooth surface of
a macadam road one horse will haul
twice the load that the same horse
could haul on the best dirt road !,
and from FIVE to ten times as much
as can be hauled by a single horse
when the dirt road is covered with
soft mud and ruts.
1.-THE average rainfall in the Uni
ted States 10 something over forty
inches per year. The dirt road
absorbs these forty odd inches OF
water, freezes and thaws, dries,
pulverises, changes from paste to
powder and back again from pow
der to paste, and for weeks at a
timeis practically impossible. Farm
traffic is tied up. You have pro.
duce to sell, purchases to make,
grain to grind, timber to haul, bills
to collect and obligations to meet,
but all these nust wait because
YOUR only avenue Of travel is taking
its annual soak. A dozen times a
day you look out of your barn door
with the hope of seeing some strug.
Cling vagrant OF whom YOU can in
quIre, How is the road?"
The first cause of the bad roads
IS the system of roadmaking that
prevails in this country, that relic
Of the feudal system which requires
all persons living on q road to de-
vote so many days Q year to "mend-
ing the road" to scrapinR the dirt
from the sides into the middle, and
then trusting TO Providence and
the passers bv to beat the upturned
streak OF dirt into something like q
wheel track. A detail of this chief
is the absence of drainage. "The
great destroyers OF common earth
roads," says Mr.. Potter, care water
and narrow wheel tires" The
harrow wheel tires furnish the
second cause of our bad roads.
European farmers use much
broader tires than we use here, and
the gauge Of their front wheels 10 less
than that of their hind wheels, 90
that the two sets Of wheels do not
track" In Bavaria. for instance,
a stringent law is enforced againt
the use Of narrow wheel tires, and
the width OF tire to be used is laid
down As follows:
Two wheel wagon with two horses. 4inches
Two wheel wagon with three or four horses
ginches.
Pour wheel wagon with two horses "a In
ches
-Four wheel wagnn with three or four horx.
e.. inches.
Five wheel wagon with five to eight horses
6 inches.
Carts having more than four
horses and wagons having moro
than eight are not allowed upon the
public roads, except by public per
mission obtained from the authori
ties Of the province.
The roads Of Europe are vastly
better than ours. France has I30,.