The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-10-17
HOW GOOD ROADS BENEFIT A
COMMUNITY.
zen. Roy Stone i'm N. Y. World.

Gen. Roy Stone in n. Y. World
The splendid road conditions existing
on the continent of Europe can be du
plicatcd here. The question is one fol
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, L heard that
there were some especially good stone
roads being constructed in the State Of
| New York, 80 l went there myself, and
to make sure that should make a
thorough test went in the midst of Il
January thaw. got pair of horses
and a light buggy to test other roads
around the country, and l found that
with great deal of difficulty l could
drive over them. But in the section
where the farmers had been building
the stone road found that two tons of
hay were being hauled with two horses
on a common narrow-tired wagon.
said to the farmers: GLOW did you
get started in tins business of building
roads ?" They said: awe started it
something, as our fields are full of stone,
with stone fences along the road, so we
scraped together enough money to buy
rock crusher, hired an engine to run
it and arranged TO bring in the stones
and haul back the crushed stones"
They have actually gone so far as to
petition the Legislature for the privil-
ege of increasing their taxation beyond
what the law allowed, and the result
Is that all the farmers in that township
are anxiously waiting for the roads to
be extended in their particular neigh
Dorhoods.
up your taxes ?" "Why," one farmer
said, sin this one week, by the a,lvan-
tage Of having these stone roads and
getting to market with my hay, when it
sells at good price, my teams have
earned So every day, while my neigh
bors' teams TN the other roads are
eating their heads OFF, We could not
afford to have their roads; we do not
care anything about the taxation"
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 re-
moving the farm products of the Uni
ted States to be 100000, 900 year.
Prof. Latta, of Pardue University, in
vestigatcd it from the point of view of
the farmers of Indiana. In that State
they have some good roads, hot the
highest class of roads, but about TO-
600 miles Of very good gravel roads.
He found from The reports of the
farmers themselves that the difference
between good and bad roads was IS
cents an acre annually on their farms.
took Il broader Wow of it and sent
out lcltcls to the l0,0 900 farmers in the
United States who had been selected
rs the best representative men to gath
CT statistics for the department of ag-
rculturc. Taking the proper cost TO
be the 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
the cost Of hauling over the ordinary
roads of the country is just about three
times as much as the cost of hauling
over stone roads. Where load is
three tons Oh good roads it is one ton
on the average farm roads. The av-
eragc cost of hauling ton n mile
throughout the United State is 25 cent.
In the New England States il Is 80
cents, they being more hilly and hav-
ing generally worse roads. The cost
in New Jersey was from seven to ten
cents.
The actual cost of moving products
is not the only loss from bad roads
by any means. Farmers lose by not
being able to get to market when the
market is good, by the waste of pre-
ducts that cannot be marketed at all on
account Of bad roads, by not being en-
couraged to cultivate things that re-
quirc speedy market, and in great
many other ways. The actual money
loss 10 the farmers of the United States
by the bad roads of the country is not
less than one quarter of the total home
value of all their products. The total
home value of the annual products of
the farms of the United States is about
$2,500,000,00O and the loss by bad
roads Is about $G00,000,000 so that the
farmers lose, or they would lose if they
could stand all that loss themselves, -
onc.Quarter Of the value of all their
products by the extra cost of getting
| them to market.
One reason why the boards of trade
and the commercial bodies in the
United States are getting interested in
good roads is the fact that the whole
business of the country is suffering for
the want of them. Take the State of
New York, where agriculture ought to
be moro prosperous than in any other
State in the Union. The great cities
and towns of the State would make 9
home market for more than its farmers
can produce, but for the want of good
roads, reliable al. the year round, the
New York farmers have no command
of their own markets, and the produce
dealers, even in the interior cities and
towns, have no certainty of regular
supply from the surrounding farms ant
are therefore obliged to have recourse
tootber States and Canada for their sup
plies. The farmer, when he Is able tt
get to market, generally finds it fore
stalled and himself obliged to ship tt
some distant point, while the farmer
along the railroads of the far West o
the good wagon roads of Ohio, Indiana
New Jersey and Canada are supplying