Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1892-01-14
GOOD ROADS,
Some Reasons Why They Should
Be Constructed.


i Be Constructed.
From the St Joseph News.
1t is really astonishing when we
come to reflect upon it how indiffer-
ent and neglectful the country has
been in regard to her public roads.
While we have seen railroads from
crude beginnings improve from year
to year, until now they are so perfect
that passenger trains fly over them
with safety at lightning speed, and
freight trains move with correspond
ing velocity, and while we have spent
hundreds of millions in improving
our railways, the public highways
have been. until very recently almost
entirely overlooked. And these, too
the most mportant of all our thor
eughfares, the most essential to the
growth and prosperity, material and
moral, of the great farming commun-
lty and the rustic population.
The has so many phases and is SO
varied in character that it is possible
to speak only very generally in a
newspaper article. We shall confne
our remarks to the great economy of
good roads. While we have no data
for estimating the cost in dollars and
cents of maintaining our present roads,
the benefit of good macadamized
roads can be SO presented as to enable
any one to see it.
The most trustworthy experiments
furnish the following as an approx
mate result: That horse can draw
on a macadamized road about three
times as much as on a common dIrt
road Therefore, If it cost a farmer
So load to haul his wheat to mark
ct over d common road, over a macad-
amized road he could haul it for 81.
He would be able to haul three times
as much at load or market three
loads in the time of one, in either case
effecting a saving of 81 per load
This, supposlng the load to be fifty
bushels, is four cents per bushel add
ed to the price of the wheat. Or to
put it in another way, if it costs a
farmer 81 to haul hundred bushels
of wheat one mile on dirt roads, and
by macadamizing the roads this cost
can be reduced to thirty cents per
mile, the price of wheat is raised ac-
cordingly. One saves seventy cents,
ten miles saves 81 or seven cents per
bushei. There are a dozen other
ways in which a saving Is made. If
one horse can do the work of three
on macadam road, the farmer can
dispense with one, at least, of the
three, thus saving the original cost
and the keeping Of one horse. He
saves also two-thIrds of his time IN
hauling his produce to market. He
can consequently do more work, cult
vate more land, and raise more wheat
and corn. This saving of time ex-
tends to the whole family when they
visit the town. He saves on his wag-
ons. They do not wear out nearly so
fast, for they are not subject to the
same wear and tear. This is also
true of his harness and his horses.
These will last two or three times as
long and be more serviceable. He
saves moreover in this indirect way;
that be can haul his wheat to market
whenever he has the time or when
ever he wishes to take advantage of
a raise in the price. And he can put
his whole crop in market in third of
the usual time.
He is benefited, too, in the increas-
ed value of his farm, which must nee
essarily result from the fine roads
that pass by it, and the greater COM
parative nearness to market. He is
brought nearer to town, to churches,
lectures, libraries, concerts, operas,
ETC., which is a great desideratum to
the farmers wives and children if not
to himself.
1t will promote sociability, for it
greatly lessons the distance which
separates families in this country, and
will enable those living miles apart
to visit each other often and in com
fort.
| On all these accounts, good roads
will be very helpful in keeping the
4 boys on the farm. This alone should
influence the farmer to use his ut
most endeavors to make the roads as
perfect as possible. There Is a moral
influence, too, which good roads ex-
ert that should not be overlooked. Ii
is, indeed, one of prime importance.
We are all more or less familiar with
the annoyance, the irritation, the ire
pressible impotence which are caus-
ed when loaded wagon is stalled in
mud hole. A good Christian man
has his religious principles severely
tested on such occasions. If be don't
swear audibly, he thinks some very
wicked thoughts no doubt, and others
don't hesitate to relieve themselves by
stream Of fiery explosives that fairly
color the atmosphere.
How shocked the wife is sometimes
if she happens to be present to hear
her husband, whom she had supposed
TO be most scrupulously correct IN his
language, ''swear like a trooper
With good roads, all temptations OF
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