The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1903-11-12
A GOOD ROADS PLEA.
A Chisago Farmer Gives Some Good
Points on Road Build
ing.
Bad Roads Affect the Financial and
Social Condition of a Com
munity.

how to build them, appeared in the
Center City Press last week, and was
written by Clair McDugall, who evil
IDENTIFY knows what he is talking about.
Center City is in Chisago county,
where the soil formation is very SINH
lar to that around Princeton:
Zone of the great problems to be
solved by the present and coming gen
erations is the question of transporta-
ton in the rural districts. Farming
has been placed on more scientific
and economic basis than formerly, but
the expense and labor of transporting
the products from the farm to the mar
ket has not been materially lessened.
"Whether an occupation is profta-
BILE and pleasant or Improbable and
disagreeable depends largely upon
the conditions that surround it. In
order that farming may be profitable
and life in the rural districts pleasant
all the elements tending to make it I'M
profitable and unpleasant must be
overcome: and one of the great OBJ
stacles in the way of obtaining both
of these objects is the country road.
In their present condition they are i'm
pascal BILE one-third of the year and
bordering on a condition of impass-
ability during a greater part of the
other twO-thirds of the year.
''This condition of the roads affects
the people in the rural communities
in at least two ways: financially and
socially.
1T affects them financially, be-
cause every days work with man and
team hauling farm products to market
costs certain sum of money in feed
for horses, wear and tear of vehicles,
the use of horses and time spent. Only
one-fifth to one-half as large a load
can be hauled over the roads in their
present condition as could be hauled
if they were in a perfect condition.
This means that it costs the farmer
from two to five times as much to mar
ket the products of his farm as it
would if he had good roads to haul
them over. The time, money and
energy wasted in hauling the farm
products to market if expended in cul-
tivating additional acres or in better
tilling the acres already under culti-
walton would greatly increase the in
come of the farmer.
1.-The success of the farmer, as we'll
as of all others engaged in producing
articles for the market, lies in produc-
ing as much as possible with the cap
ital and labor employed, and in re-
ducing to a minimum the cost of pro-
ducing such products and placing them
on the market. In order to reduce to
placing on the market the crops of the
farm. every item of expense must be
taken into consideration. Each crop
on the farm from the time the seed is
put into the ground until the crop is
ready for market goes through many
stages of development and processes
of preparation, each of which requires
the expenditure of money and labor.
The successful farmer constantly stud
les how he may lessen the expenditure
of money here and labor there in the
cultivation and preparation of his
crops without thereby lessening the
yield, and how he may make his acres
yield the largest crops possible. Now
if he succeeds in increasing to maxi
mum the yield per acre, yet, when he
has the crop ready for market, he is
confronted with an item of expense
that is large or small in proportion
to the distance from his farm to the
nearest market. When he lives so far
from the market that he cannot make
more than one or two trips a day the
question of how much he can haul to
each load becomes very VITAL If he
can make only one trip day, and the
road is in such condition that he
can haul only one-third as much as
he could if the roads were in good
condition, he has lost just two days
work with man and team on each load
of products raised, as it will take him
two days more to haul the same GUAM
tity that he could have hauled in one
load if the roads had been in good
condition: in other words it has cost
him three times as much to market his
products as it would have cost if the
roads had been in good condition.
"Figure up the additional expense
of hauling crop to market, and then
add thereto the additional time it
takes, because of bad roads, to make
all the other incidental trips from the
farm to the market and other places
that must necessarily be visited dur.
ing the year in the transaction of bus.
mess, ana you will find that there is
no GREATER WaStpr of the farmers