The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1903-12-29

public roads of the country.
1t is difficult to impress these facts
on the public. The farmer does not
calculate the wear and tear on his
horses and vehicles in transporting
chases to his home. lie does not
charge for his time in travelling over
the roads. He is generally in no par
ticular hurry, and would as soon make
two trips to town as one trip. How
to impress on him and the public gem
orally the cost of bad roads and the
profit of good roads is problem which
Professor Latta, of the Purdue Uni
versity, of Indiana. undertook to solve,
and he seems to have solved it. He
laid down the proposition that perma-
nent good roads would benefit the
farmers, hence the communities, in
five different ways, in that they would:
Economic time and force in trans
portation between farm and market;
Enable the farmer to take advantage
of market fluctuations in buying and
selling;
Permit transportation of farm prod
ucts and purchased commodities during
times of comparative leisure;
Reduce the wear and tear on horses,
harness and vehicles;
Enhance the market value of real es-
tate.
In order to ascertain from the farm
ers themselves the facts from which he
could reduce answers, affirmative or
negative, to his propositions, he ad-
dressed to them the following inter-
rogatories:
First-About what proportion of the
public highways in your county are
now good gravel roads?
Second-Please estimate the average
Increase lin dollars and cents in the
selling price an acre of land throughout
the county as the result Of such gravel
roads.
Third-If all the public roads in your
county were converted into improved
highways, how much, in your judg-
ment, would it increase the average
selling price per acre of land through
out your county?
Fourth-What would be a fair esti-
mate of the cost per mile of convert
ing our common dirt roads as they now
exist into good gravel roads, provided,
of course, the work were to be per-
formed economically under some com
petent, general supervision, and not
hampered by legal restrictions?
Fifth-Supposing that your county
We're divided into 100 acre farms, and
that the average distance of each farm
from the market were five miles. what,
in your judgment, would be the aver
age annual cost lin dollars and cents
to each farmer of our improved high
ways?
In answering the fifth question please
take into account the reduced loads, in
creased time, extra wear and tear, and
loss in sales from inability to deliver
products when the market is best.
Averages from forty counties in his
State, from which he was enabled to
approximate averages, were as fol-
lows:
First = The average estimated in
crease in the selling price of land due
to existing improved highways is seas
per acre. The estimates from which
this average is made refer in most
cases to lands near the improved roads,
but in a few instances they apply
to all the lands of the county. The
average increase, therefore, of S6.4S
per acre is lower than was intended
for the lands near the improved roads.
fnH 90 n
crease per acre that would result from
improving all the public roads is 50.
Third-The estimated average cost of
converting the common public roads
into improved highways is $1146 per
mile.
Fourth-The estimated average an
nual loss, per one hundred acres, from
poor roads is $76.2S.
He then remarks, as a result of these
figures:
eff these estimates are even approx
mately correct. they furnish a key
to the satisfactory solution Of the ques-
ton Of highway Improvement from the
money standpoint. On the basis Of the
last mentioned estimate, the average
annual loss an acre from poor roads
is more than seventy-six cents. In
five years the losses would aggregate
$2432 for every section of land, and
this sum would construct two miles at
q cost Of $1216 a mile, which is $40 a
mile above the estimated average cost
given by the farmers themselves. The
present road tax, which, under exist
ing laws, is largely thrown away,
would, under proper system. of road
maintenance, doubtless keep improved
highways in perfect repair"
II the foregoing statments are near
approach to the truth, it follows that
the losses and expenditures which
farmers actually incur on account Of
poor roads would also secure perma-
nently good roads. Can any sane man
doubt the wisdom of exchanging the
losses, delays, accidents and vexation
of spirit occasioned by bad roads for
the comfort and other advantages of
good roads, when the cost is the
same?
From the investigations and labors Of
men intellectually and morally compe-
tent to make them, the extravagant
cost of bad roads is indisputably