The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1893-03-17

Mass Fonr-inch tires: weight per inch OF tire.
go pounds; ruts ~ inches. Cost for hauling
every ton OF freight one mile over this road, ~
cents.
twenty feet Of width, and the rest Of
the road land were sold or rented. Illi-
nois would thereby save Immediately
about thirteen millions of dollars. be-
sides the produce forever of che land
restored to cultivation.
This Ought to be law, and rigidly en-
forced; that every inch of land taken
by the public for roads should be ac-
tually used for roads, and be kept so
thoroughly worked that no weeds nor
noxious insects could possibly grow
thereon.
The state has power TO restore this
unused land To residents along the road
lines, either by absolute sale, or by
perpetual rental, at appraised valua-
tions, the price to be paid into the high
way fund. TO help make good roads
This would offer TO farmers at once q
great ipducement to construct good
roads, provided the law should SO re-
store unused road lands only wherever
lirst class roads IRE constructed and
maintained
The magnificent roads Of France are
the delight of all travellers. France
only takes so much land for roads as il
actually used. The greatest OF the
Napoleonic roads are only forty feet
wide, broadened in passing through
cities and large villages to sixty feet
Every foot Of the with Is paved,
smooth and durable, with stone gut
tiers and curbs. Near and in villages
there are sometimes narrow side walks
next TO the curb lines. The land is
The roads, not being fenced. appear
like great gravel or paved paths rum
ming through an endless garden. All
the less important side roads crossing
these gre at highways are narrow lanes.
on fifteen to twenty feet wide, also
generally paved. The statistics If
Ere nch agriculture prove that tho
land thus saved more than pays. by its
profitable use, the entire cost Of road
maintenance.
In England. also, the traveller finds
broad and splendid highways between
important towns. with narrow lanes
Tor all unlmporJaht road&
DO these magnifice Mt roads pay far m
ers? Yes. They are the greatest pub
Tic benc fit the farmer has In France
the ordinary load for French farm
market wagon is four to FIVE tons for a
single pair Of horses. Often seven TO
ten tons are taken to market. driven
by three or four horses A whole
stack Of hay-a load sixteen feet long.
eight feet wide or ten or twelve feet
kEh. Is taken TO market in one load,
ns are $40 bushels of potatoes or grain.
Now see how this pays. An Illinois
farmer. living eight or ten miles from
market, hauls one ton TO market in one
day. Say this ton is worth $50. The
French farmer hauls fire tons at one
load. worth $780, SO the French farm
err markets five times as much in one
days work Ms the Illinois farmer. The
postman goes ont daily on all these
French roads. letting the farmers
know every change of market prices
DO prices rise, Ire French farmer hauls
20 market 1T one load five or ten tons,
and gets the benefit of the rise. The
Illinois farmer Gf he hears OF tho
rise) hau.s one ton only, and before ho
can get any moro TO market the price
falls again.
These IRE facts that are worth the
careful study of every politician, every
legislator, every farmer, and especially
every farmers club or other organixa-
tion.--L. J. Bates, in Chicago EearingA