Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-04-20
era thirty years ago. Still the trans.

were thirty years ago. DULL tne trAlls
portation problem can not be coRsid-
cred as satisfactorily solved ifit costs as
naach to carry ton of wheat or pota-
toes to the railway station as it does
to carry it 400 miles over the railroad.
''The bad condition of the roads be-
gan to attract widespread attention
something over ten years ago. Certain
elementary principles were evident at
O glance, to wit: the price OF farm
products is fixed at the great cities OF
centers OF consumption and distrlbu-
tion, and is wholly beyond the farmers
control, and the..cost of transporta-
tion is principal factor in determin-
ing his profits OF the possibility OF
any profit. On the railroads this has
been reduced until it varies according
to bulk, from one cent to six mills per
ton per mile. But the average roads
are so bad that two-horse team and
wagon, the value of which is So per
day, cannot haul ton of produce
more than ten miles and return in
day. The cost of road transportation
is, therefore, thirty cents per ton per
mile, or about forty times as great as
the rate on the railroad. The average
distance from the farm to the nearest
railroad station is at least ten miles,
so that it costs as much to get the
goods to or from the railroad station
as to carry them 400 miles on the cars.
It only needs to state these element
ary facts to show what al enormous
drain bad roads make on our re-
sources.
"It is evident that an improvement
in these conditions is imperative, and
the remedy is equally evident, for it
has been proved, not only by me-
chanical experiment but by actual test,
that the same force which draws one
ton on q muddy earth road will draw
four tons on n hard macadam read.
On the improved roads in New Jersey
loads of four to FIVE tons are habltu-
ally drawn by two-horse team. This
effects a saving of fully three-fourths
of the cost of hauling to the station,
and reduces the cost of road trans
portation from thirty cents to seven
and one-half cents per ton per mile.
What this saving amounts to may be
imagined when it is known that the
New York Central railroad alone car
ries nearly 2O,OOO,0OO tons of way
freight in year. If this is hauled
only two miles by road to or from the
station, and saving of twenty-five
and one-half cents per ton per mile
could be effected, it would mean
total saving of nearly $4,000, 600.
These figures may seem exaggerated,
but they will no longer appear so when
we realize the saving actually ac-
complished by the reduction in rail-
road rates in the last twenty-five years.
For instance, in 1869 the average
freight rate on the New York Central
Railroad was "a cents per ton per
mile; in 1893 it was seven mills. This
saving, on the business of 1898 is up
ward of SS4, 100000. This is the re-
suit which has been accomplished by
the application to the railroad prob
lem of the highest available talent.
During these same twenty-five years
little or no attention has been given to
the railroad problem. The roads are
as bad now as they were in 1859, and
the cost of transportation over them
as great now as it was then. In the
next twenty tive years the results ac-
complished on the common roads are
likely to be as remarkable as those
achieved on the railroads in the last
twenty-five years"