The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1906-01-25
BAD ROADS EXPENSIVE.
A Timely and Pertinent Discussion
of the Needs of Rural
Districts.

In fall. winter and spring the farm
er has the best opportunity of appre-
ciating the cost to him of bad roads.
In the fall the mud Is deep in some of
the highways, especially those on a
clayey loan. which heaves badly with
the frost When the ground freezes
up the deeply cut ruts remain, and
when not covered deeply with snow
are a constant impediment to traffic.
They are worse than the dust in the
summer or the mud at the two ends
of winter. In the most northern part
OF the country such ruts are covered
with snow during most of the time
thes are frozen but this is not true
of ali the country. South of the re-
gion where snow lies all winter is a
strip of country hundreds OF miles
wide where the ground is frozen for
months, but where the snow covers 1t
for but a short time. In this strip
which extends from the Missouri river
to the Atlantic coast. the roads are
very bad for many months of the cold
est part of the year. except where such
roads are made of gravel or are on a
soil gravelly by nature. The ruts
damage vehicles of all kinds and fire.
quently break harness when heavy
loads are being drawn. The force ex-
pended by horses in pulling loads over
such roads is far in excess of the
force required TO pull a load over even
a poor earth road in summer. This
Is the time of year, says the Farmers
Review. when farmers have time for
organization of societies for road i'm
provement Local societies for the i'm
provement Of the roads are far more
effective than great national associa-
tionC because the local societies have
no local iealousies to overcome. II
the people of any community can be
brought to a realization of how ex
pensive bad roads are they will take
measures to remedy them. The plan
tnat will do in one locality will not
do in another; for the reason that
each locality has its particular road
problem There Is only one thing In
which there Is a similarity, and that
is. that in each community bad roads
are expensive. II costs more to keep
up bad road than 1t does poor one,
but the people seldom realize this, for
the reason that the tax Is distributed
over a multitude of things-men. car
riages, horses. harness, and the like.
The good road costs little TO keep up,
in comparison. but the cost appears
large because II Is all to be found on
the towns books. The sentiment In
favor of improving the roads finds its
greatest stimulus in the expensiveness
of poor roads. Where bad roads are
tolerated from year to year, the peo-
pie have never taken time TO consider
the loss sustained from the bad roads.
Agitators for road improvement will
find their strongest argument to be the
losses caused by the roads In their
poor condition. If man can take the
time to go about his community and
make a list of the accidents to horses,
wagons and harness. that have oc-
Cured for years back, he will find
himself in possession of a most pow
erful argument in favor of immediate
improvement Of the highways The
same array OF facts will be a surprise
to the men who have furnished the
data. for none OF them have ever
considered the magnitude of the ag-
gregate losses. The road system of
the United States is one of the Won
derful things in the world, and the
like Of It is not possessed by any 9TH
er nation, but there are many points
at which II can be improved. The
vastness OF this road system is its
weakness