The suburban citizen., 1900-10-20
-.
God Roads R6tss
!.
stntIstlcs Thnt Convince.


WV HE splendid road conditions
existing on tho continent Of
Europe can be duplicated
here. The question is one for
the people themselves to solve, and il
is actually being solved in the United
States to-day by the voluntary action
of communities in various sections of
the country.
For example, writes General Roy
Stone in the New York Journal 1
heard that there were some especially
good stone roads being. constructed
in the State of New York SO | went
there myself, and to make sure that
should make a thorough test, | went
i'm the midst of January thaw.
got a pair of horses and light buggy
to test other roads around the cOun-
try and found that with a great deal
of difficulty L could drive over them.
But in the section where the farmers
had been building the stone roads |
found that two tons of hay were be.
ing hauled with two ordinary horses
on a common narrow-tired wagon.
said to the farmers: "How did you
get started in this business of building
roadsW
They said: 1--WE started it ourselves.
We thought we could do something,
as our fields are full Of stone, with
stone fences along the road, so we
scraped together enough money to
buy a rock crusher, hired an engine
to run 1t, and arranged to bring in the
stones and haul back the crushed
stone"
They have actually gone so far as to
petition the Legislature for the privi-
lege of increasing their taxation be-
yond what the law allowed, and the
result is that all the farmers in that
township are anXiously waiting for
the roads to be extended into their
particular neighborhoods.
! said to them: Doesn't this pile
up your taxesY why" one farmer
said, "i1 this one week, by the advan-
tage Of having these stone roads and
getting to market with my hay, when
it sells at good price, my teams have
earned 50 every day, while my neigh
bors' teams on the ether roads are
eating their heads Off We could not
afford not to have these roads; we
do not care anything about the taxa
ton"
A bright statistician, taking the rail
road returns Of freight and the amount
Of it that is hauled over the public
roads, makes the needless cost of NOV.
ing the farm products OF the United
States to be S6OO,OO0OOO a year.
Professor 1atta, of Perdue Uniyer-
sity, investigated it from the point of
view of the farmers Of Indiana. In
that State they have some good roads
not the highest class Of roads, but
about ten thousand miles Of very good
gravel roads. He found from the re-
ports Of the farmers themselves that
the difference between good and bad |
roads was seventy-eight cents an acre
annually on their farms.
This, taken all over the farm area Of |
the United States, would make 5000 |
600
I took a broader view Of It, and sent /
out letters to the 10000 farmers in /
the United States who had been Sc
lected as the best representative men /
to gather statistics for the Department |
of Agriculture.
Taking the proper cost to he tho /
present cost to the farmers in the |
good roads district of New Jersey |
where there are actually as good roads |
as are found in any part Of Europe |
found that the cost Of hauling over
the ordinary roads Of the country is
just about three times as much as the /
cost of hauling over good stone roads /
Where load is three tons on good |
roads it is one ton on the average |
farm roads.