The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1899-05-25

is not an expensive ION
stones. Experience has
the earth, properly drained4
a foundation as can be had,
principal construction in the Stats
been resolved into roads four, six and
eight inches deep. These ale built
at a cost of from twenty to seventy
cents square yard, with an average
of from fifty to sixty cents. The con-
tract price of stone roads ranges from
$4,000 to $4,000 per mile and gravel
roads as low as S1400.
In building, the State favors sys-
tenn Of continuous avenues, and now
possesses q nearly completed line from
Atlantic City to Jersey City.
Farmers are finding out the benefits
of good roads, which formerly they
opposed on account Of the cost. In
Gloucester County teams that with
bad roads carried only forty to fifty
baskets of vegetables or fruit now
carry 130 to ITS. So bad were the
roads that much produce had to go to
market by boat. By using his own
team and carting an average load OF
$50 baskets the farmer now saves $40
per day on freight and incidentals,
and about S6 to a commission mer-
chant, as, bringing in the load him
self, he markets it himself. All the
Gloucester farmers have withdrawn
their ELECTIONS to good roads. This
principle applies throughout the State.
The novel proposition of Secretary
Wilson, of the Agricultural Depart
ment, to lay down fiat steel rails for
wagon roads is favorably commented
on. They would give the farmers
smooth and hard roads at all times Of
the year. The material costs about
$4,000 mile for long distances, and
for ordinary country roads at fifty tons
per mile the cost need not exceed
$1,000, the expense of grading and
laying to be added.
"Successful farming depends upon
good roads," says the report. ga
farmer should ship from farm of 120
acres at least $50 tons annually. To
haul this to market on a good wagon
would require, ct six tons a day,
twenty-five days. Allowing So a day
for the team and man, the cost of this
transportation would be S75. Upon
IN average poor road it would take
seyenty.fv days for one team and a
man to haul this produce, which, at s.
per day, would amount to 1925. It
would then cost $3.50 more, to- carry
the annual products of this faEra over
poor road than over a goH road.
Here is where the money goes. J"
A. J. Cassatt is quoted ss saying
that the cost of maintaining a good
macadam road under the wear of
rural traffic is not over $40 per mile
yearly. Trap rocks, it is said, where
obtainable, should always be used in
road making, as they are harder and
tougher than the best Of other rocks.
A protest'is made against the high
ways being used by trolley lines. In
stead of going upon the wagon roads
Mr.. Budd thinks the companies should
obtain their own right of way like
steam railroads.
The time is rapidly approaching,
Mr.. Budd thinks, when the automo-
bile will take the place of the horse
and bicycle in New Jersey. This ac-
centuates the necessity Of covering
the country roads with macadam,
which will not be destroyed as with
the picking of the horses feet and the
hard tire of the ordinary wagon wheel,
but made smooth by the pressure Of
the rubber tire.
Dirt roads, the report says, are the
most expensive. Petrole"iai IS sug-
gested as 2 gcsa aep1ication to sup
press dust, and by excluding water to
keep the road good in wet and dry
weather. Steam rollers are advised
instead Of those propelled by horse.
Tires six inches wide are advised in
stead of the regular one inch and a
half, the draught power needed being
less and the wear of the roads less.
This is fact not generally known,
but shown to be so by experiments.