Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-02-07
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One Of the strangest facts of the
day is the inability of the farmers of
the central west to see that a small
tax levied on their properties and ap-
piled to the permanent improvement
Of the ordinary highways would be
money in the pockets Of each of them.
In 1900 the people of the State Of
New York had their attention called
sharply to the fact that farm values
in that State had shrunk more than
6 per cent, or $7O,O0O,00O, in ten years,
and were more than $500, 100000 less
In the aggregate than they were thirty
years before.
Startled into investigation, they
found the same shrinkage in other
northeastern States except in Massa-
chusetts, and in that State an increase
Of nearly "a per cent was traced to the
fact that the State had literally i'm
proved it's roads and established a
park system.
Further study showed that in New
York about 100000 tons per annum
Of farm products were hauled direct
ly to market every year over the pub
lie highways at a cost to the farmer
of not less than % cents per ton per
mile, while over roads properly grad
ed and graveled or macadamed the
cost would be from to s cents per
ton per mile.
The soil, subsoil and drainage on
and below the surface are such that
the natural roads, made only by use,
are vastly better in New York than
the average Of those laid out and
worked in Illinois. We pay for our
vastly richer soil with dirt roads that
are bottomless mud when wet, sitting
with dust when dry and rougher than
lava beds when frozen.
No statistics nor estimates are at
hand to show what the cost of trans
porting freight per ton per highway
mile in this State may be, but if it
be true, as the experience Of Massa-
chuSettS is said to make reasonably
sure, that improved highways in New
York will enable her farmers to get
their products to market 60 per. cent
more cheaply than now a like improve
ment in this and other States along
the Mississippi should enable our
farmers to make a much larger saw
ing in the same process, quite surely
not less than 70 per cent, even though
the nature OF the soil here might
make the first cost of improving con-
siderably greater.
The saving in wear and tear on the
traction animals and on the repairs
of harness and wagons alone, to say
nothing CT the time gained and the
saving in other ways, ought to make
no small part Of the general gain. No
one who has had experience of Illi-
nois roads in wet autumns or in late
winter and spring can have any doubt
on that point.
New York has just voted a consti-
tutional amendment ordering the issue
Of $50,OO0,O00 Of State bonds for high
way improvement, carrying an inter-
est charge Of per cent per annum
and one of 2 per cent for a sinking
fund, to be issued to the amount Of
100000 annually for ten years and
to be paid, principal, interest and
sinking fund, by the State and the
counties and towns where applied in
the proportions Of so per cent by the
State, 80 per cent by the counties and
Is per cent by the towns.
The general plan is the outcome Of
long and careful study, based on eX-
Perience in Massachusetts and else
where, and it seems worthy of the
closest study by the legislators and
people of the whole country, the great
central west and northwest more es-
pecially.
1t is impossible for every farmer to
have a railway station on his farm.
For the great majority of them the
public highways Of the country must
forever remain for greater or lesser
distances the only means of getting
their products to home markets or to
the great steam arteries of commerce
the railways or the rivers or canals.
In New York the authorization of
The work is confidently expected to add
at least $40 per acre to the value
Of the farm lands affected, and the
added value in the Mississippi val
ley would be Of necessity relatively
greater.
For every dollar of tax paid for the
purpose enhanced values would be
counted in scores of dollars within a
single lifetime.-Chicago Chronicle.