Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-03-11
RAPID TRANSIT IN THE COUNTRY.
II Would Have as Good AN Effect There
rs II Has In the City.

either the transportation OF their proper
~ or of themselves. Houses and land
near rapid transit lines are worth double
,he money that those situated far from
Them will bring. Not so much as the
wasting of second will be tolerated in
The town.
Why should there be such vast diff
ference between the town and the sub
Lrbs? Is the time of clerk worth more
per watch tick than the time of
farmer?
The idea that it is so is absurd. Yet the
clerk husbands his time with the great
est care, while the farmer wastes his
with the most complete Indifference.
Hours every day he throws away with
40 benefit to him or any one else. He is
content to jog along through must and
lust, quagmires and ruts, so slowly that
his hours for work and recreation are
materially curtailed. He reads in the
papers about rapid transit for the cities,
but he doesn't realize that what is so
very good for the towns must be good
also for the country. The idea of rapid
transit for the country never occurs to
him. Going" always has been bad
most of the time on the roads around
his home, and he doesn't stop to think
that it ever can be better. 1t never will
be if he doesn't help better it,
If rapid transit is desirable in the city,
why isn't it also desirable in the coun-
try? If rapid transit enables city sellers
to make more money on their sales be-
cause they can get them to market sooner
and cheaper thereby, why shouldn't it
do the same for the country sellers? If
rapid transit adds thousands to the value
of city property, why shouldn't it have "a
similar effect on country acresP
There is no reason whatever why all
these results should not as surely come
among the farms as they do among the
factories.
But how can the country have rapid
transit you ask. Surely elevated rail
roads and electric cars and cable sys-
practicable in the country. No, nor
would they meet the necessities of the
case if they could be built and main
tanned. What are required and what
are perfectly feasible are hard, smooth,
broken stone wagon roads. Moreover.
such roads would mean not only
rapid transit, but cheap transit; not only
cheap transit, but comfortable transit.
They would cost considerable money,
but they would not cost as much money
as the vile, mud stuck roadways that
now keep the country from progress and
keep it in poverty. The question of high
way improvement has as serious a bear
ing ON the future of American agricul-
ture as has the question of free trade or
protection, free coinage or restricted
coinage. There are many thoughtful
men, in fact, whU consider road improve
ment the most important issue that now
confronts the farmer.
A few very simple calculations will
show wherein the importance of road
improvement lies. 1t is easy to see how
the farmer might save vast amount of
time every year if he and his men were
not delayed by being forced to drive
slowly over bad roads 1t is equally
easy to see that if roads were smooth
teaming to accomplish the same results
he could get his produce to market in
half the number of loads, because he
could haul twice as much in each load.
To carry this line of reasoning little
farther it becomes evident that if the
farmers teaming were reduced one-half
he would need less horses than he re-
quires now, and would be enabled to
save not only the purchase price of the
hat tl,a, Of
ing them and of hiring men to care for
them and drive them.
In this connection Isaac B. Potter, in
his Gospel of Good Roads," figured
that the farmers of the United States
have upon their farms draft animals
horses, mules and communicating SO,
393.SSS He says: Making the most
liberal allowance in favor of the farmer
and granting the necessity for the lib
eral use of horse power in the mainte-
nance of agricultural traffic, it is easily
certain that the farmers of this country
are keeping at least 2,OOO,OOO horses
more than would be necessary to do all
the hauling between farm and market
if only the principal roads were brought
to good condition. If you assume that
each of these horses is fed the ordinary
army ration of hay and oats. it requires
| $4,000 tons of hay or fodder and 100, 00C
bushels of oats per day to feed these un-
necessary animals, which themselves
have money value Of $l4 100000. The
value of hay and oats fed to these horses
per day is about $500, 900 (valuing hay
at ten dollars per ton and oats at TWEEN
ty-three cents per busheD. or something
like 81 IA, 600, 900 year"
There, without taking into considera
ton the unnecessary wear and tear OF
wagons, harnesses and animals which i.
entailed by bad roads, is useless ex
penditure of 81 1000, 900 year, aside
from the interest on and each years pro
portionate share of the purchase price
-$14, OOO, 900. Is there any other reform
which would save that amount to tn,
farmers in the course of twelve months
But the saving of that sum is only ont
of the profits which would accrue to tn
farmer from good roads. Inquiry il
| communities where roads have been i'm