The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-06-25
PREACHER ON GOOD ROADS


Life.
Rev. Victor 1. Masters, a native of
Anderson County, delivered an adj
dress recently before the Beech Island
Farmers Club, which is worthy of re-
production in our columns, and is as
follows
A review of some of the most salient
points which have been fixed, showing
the surprising Importance of road inn
provement can never be out of place
in this country of ours, where we can
make no advance in our institutions
except as we educate the voters up to
seeing the need of such advance.
1t is not generally known that early
in the last century the national gov
ornment for quite a period took al in
terest IN and constructed public high
" 70. John G. Calhoun was a cham
pi for the cause. The most endur-
IL tangible fruit of Interpolation was
a lendidly constructed road from the
A ntic seaboard across the Allie
ghaales through Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois, to the Mississippi. This road
is still! In existence, and has done its
share as an object lesson in favor of
better roads.
With the advent of railroads and a
contemporaneous financial panic, gov.
ernmental road Improvement went to
the wall, against which 1T has nestled
since, until recently. Vastly import
ant to the country's welfare as is the
condition Of the public highways,
never a word was spoken in u Presi-
dents message until some years ago,
Mr.. Mckinley IN four lines called at
tention to the fact that the Secretary
of Agriculture was cooperating with
citizens of the republic in every Sec
ton, looking TO the betterment of the
highways.
To the efforts of Secretary Wilson,
to the growing use of the bicycle, and
of the automobile, and to a natural,
part of the general public may be as
crlbed the present improved stase of
the public mind.
GREAT COST OF HAULING.
There is gradually t%ranspiring a
greater intelligence as to the value of
good roads. Government experiments
show that in the South the average
cost of hauling a ton a mile is 25 cents,
that the average length of haul to
market is twelve and one-half miles,
therefore it costs the Southern farmer
on the average 1912 to haul a ton of
stuff. Not content with this result, j
have questioned tanners who lave
figured out practically the same cost
per mile. Now, if a farmer hauls
twelve ons of stuff to each horse
worked on the farm, and runs say a
five horse farm, his hauling for the
year will cost $1S7, a much larger sum
than he is likely to suspect.
Government calculations, based ON
census reports, reveal the astounding
fact that the hauling connected with
farming operations costs one-fourtt
the home value of the produce raised
on the farm
AN APosTRoPHE TO SANDY ROADS
The value Of good roads receives
new light from the statement of au
thentlcated traction tests. On asphalt
it takes a force of only seventeen
pounds to move a ton; on macada
mized, 100 pounds; on hard clay, IL
pounds; OF ordinary dirt, 224 pounds
while on sand it takes AS pounds Oh
all possible roads sand roads are thu
worst. Not even the morass of rec
mud which racks the nerves and kills
the stock of the up.country South Car
DINA waYfarer, for three months il
midwInter, is worse than all-the-year
round Aiken sand Moreover there
is something to stimulate heroism il
lacking an %up-country hill, or an up.
country road full of mudholes. There
san attractive novelty in the sheer
acertainty as to whether the mex
ough of mud and water will com
letely engulf you, and there is a stlm.
lating uncertainty as to just how HARD
will be to surmount that thirty.
I'VE per cent. grade on the next hill
Bat the dead-level, mountainous, de.
bliiLating, u~nrelenting, always hard
grind of a sand bed is unwholesome
for a mans feelings, killing to his stock
and paralyzing to his purse. A sand
bed to Inc represents despair. il
never changes, it is always there. II
always demands a tax of four hundred
per cent of surplus energy needed fol-
something else. 1t is the climax OF
encouragement to q traveller and OF
Notwithstanding expenses to a far.
mer.
A LONG HAU ON BAL ROADS MEANS
POVERTY.
l said loose sand was the worst pos.
sible road and offered statistics to
show that it is four times as hard to
draw @ Ioad over sand "a over hard
clay. However, there is one
thing worse than a sand bed, it is a
sand hill. Experiments show that it
takes something more than six times
the power to draw a load up a five and
one-half per cent. grade on any sort of
road than it takes to draw the same
load on level roads. Now If it is four
times as hard to draw a load on level
sandy roads as on level hard clay it
will take twenty-four times the power
to draw a load up a sand hill of five
and one-half per cent. that it would
take to draw the same load on good
level roads. So the climax of trac-
ton impossiblity is reached on a sand
hill If these figures seem fanciful to
you, suppose you refresh your own
memory, which points to tlleir truth,
by some experimentation. A man
who lives in the sand hills twelve
miles from the market is practically
out of the race with his fellow farmers
in trying TO put produce on the mar