Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1903-07-23

Just three times as great az It would be
If we had good roads all over the Unit
ed States. The average life of the farm
horse Is shortened several years by the
bad roads; live stock in general is less
ened in flesh and longevity by having
to travel over miry and rut covered
roads. When the farmer of today drives
his fattened hogs to market over 4
country road he expects them to lose a
great many pounds of flesh in making
the trip. If the roads We're smooth and
hardened by uacadam the loss would
be curtailed and his net profit that
much more.
The average speed along a country
road today is five to six miles an hour
| with farm wagon With q good
team Of horses it is possible to drive
fifteen and even twenty miles an hour.
There are communities in Illinois
where the roads are 50 winding and
cut up by r7rts that a lightly loaded
buggy drawn by two good farm horses
cannot reach over an eight mile gait
Hill climbing, as all horse owners
know, is hard on the animal. 1t re-
duees the flesh very quickly. The
roads of the country should be in such
condition as 10 do away with all steep
inchnes. The life of the horse might
be extended by several years and the
cost of hts feed would also be lessened
in the improvement and alignment Of
these defects.
The farmers OF this country are los
ers by tho bad road evil at least $1OO
per capita per annum. By combining
| their losses and placing them at the
| disposal of expert road builders with
in ten years the roads would be in
such staae of travel as to prevent the
loss. every GEM of it, This system Of
economies is beginning TO dawn upon
the farmers, and through the state leg
isAtureS kssys are being enacted to
remedy tho oonltry road system.
| Not only the farmers are taking an
active interest in road improvement.
but the wfleehDen, automobiles and
the men who make these vehicles.
Nearly every fhp of industry is affect
ed.
The cost Of hauling products from
farm to DWn averages 25 cents per ton
per mila w.trlh the rate by rail is Z
cents Thus the hauling of load Of
| wheat from the farm to the station
often costs the farmer more than ship
ping It 10 distant market. Common
road traffR wales are higher than in
any Other country. In Belgium a ton
of farm protlts can be hauled a mile
for 20 cents; England, Ii cents;
France, Germany and Italy, IL cents;
Switzerland, 70 cents. Our people who
return mon trips abroad are unit in
expressing thetr dsgustw1th road con-
oittoJS tn lAneERa.
The cost Of pod building Is not SO
enorzmnB but that public highways
can be oIHtre&ted and yet theno are
coannes.m western stahes where. not a
stroke OF hhox has been perDTmed
upon a country highway for years. In
New jersey stOns roads are being built
for S,DO per mile. These roads are
fifteen nRt wife and will last twenty
OF mIe yeus. AlacR1am roads eight
feet w61e cHn be built at q cost Of
$500 PEE mfe. Single track gravel
roads GIN he mrin for $500 a mile.
TelfnIn roads the best that can be
constructed. cost $4,000 per mih. In
Michigan, recently farmers set to work
and emHtFnceed plain dirt roads at a
cost Of $500 ler mile. But the dirt road
even at a re>ltped original cost is more
expensive in the end. Washouts carry
away the dirt, Futs form with any con-
siderable alAuunt of traffic, and slush
pools are common along the roadside.
The most expensive roads have been
found to be the cheapest in the end.