The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1898-04-26
Cost of BAD Road transportation.

road improvements in said county"
Cost of Bad Road Transportation.
Some very interesting observations
as to the cost of bad roads to farmers
were made in an address delivered to
the students of Union College, n. Y,
by Mr.. Francis V. Greene, President
of the Barber Asphalt Company. As
a thorough discussion of the expense
rs well as the Inconvenience OF bad
highways is necessary to bring about
n reform some of his remarks are here
reproduced:
''In the older and more settled por.
tions of the country the railroads are
so numerous aud the rates are so low
that they yield but n small return on
the capital invested, and the construc-
tion of new railroads has ceased TO be
an attractive field for investment.
The rates of freight have been steadily
reduced, year by year, until they are
now barely one-fourth of what they
were thirty years ago. Still the trans
portation problem can not be consid-
cred as satisfactorily solved lift costs as
much to carry n ton of wheat or pota-
to carry IL 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 Mt
glance, to wit: the price of farm
products is fixed at the great cities or
centers of consumption and distribu-
ton, and is wholly beyond the farmers
control, aud the cost of trausporta-
ton is a principal factor in determin-
ing his profits or 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 aud return in n
day. The cost of road transportation
is, therefore, thirty cents per ton per
mile, or about forty times rs 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 60 get the
goods to or from the railroad station
as to carry them 400 miles on the cars.
1t only needs to state these element
airy facts to show what nm enormous
drain bad roads make on our re-
sources.
''1t is evident that an improvement
in these conditions is imperative, aud
the remedy is equally evident, for Il
has been proved, not only by me-
chaulcal experiment but by actual test,
that the same force which draws one
ton on muddy earth road will draw
four tons on hard macadnm read.
On the improved roads in New jersey
loads of four to five tons are habitu-
ally drawn by II two horse team. This
effects saving of fully three-fourths
OF the cost of hauling 10 the station,
aud 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 tho
New York Central railroad alone car
ries nearly 100000 900 toas of way
freight in year. If this is hauled
only two miles by roal to or from the
station, and saving of twenty two
and one-half cents per ton per mile
could be effected, it would mean n
total saving of nearly $1,000, 900.
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 i'll the last twenty we years.
For instance, i'll 1869 the average
freight rate on the New York Central
Railroad was ID cents per ton per
mile; in 1893 it was seven mills This
saving, on the business Of 1893 is up
ward Of S64, 000,00O 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 arc
as bad now as they were in 1869, and
the cost Of transportation over them
rs great now az it was then. In tho
next twenty i've 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 wears