The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-13

may at any time cover eighteen miles of road. dragging behind him with ease a weight which q dozen yoke of oxen could not haul through many miles of the boegy quagmirs which in the South and Southwestern portions of our conhtry are called public high ways
 if America is to maintain rank as the leading nation of ,he. world. there Is work for highway engineers. and the time is short
 But 1t is not only sentiment that should. promote the sconstruction ana the maintenance of public highways throughout the iepgth and breadth of this country: there are cold dollar reasons. Poor roads impose an un- necessary financial burden not only upon those who most constantly use them, but upon the men and women who consume the products grown in the rural sections and brought to cities and towns by farmers.
 No more convincing study can be had than that of the economic waste placed upon. the shoulders of the s5.- 100000 people of this land from the almost crim;naliy shameful condition of 2.000. 900 miles of road. Every pound of farm products brought from rural sections to thicisly populated centers has placed upon it a fictitious value, because 1t costs the farmer more to transport 1t than. 1t would cost him were the roads In passaBIs condition. The price of, the lamb chop that Mad am Brooklyn had for break fast is bas- ed not upon the real value of the un- fortunate lamb. but upon the cost of bringing that lamb from tho Western fields to the Brooklyn breakfast tabie.
 rsH A Ns e.. xqs- "A be but triflfng did 1t, not cost the farm CT who grew the wheat from which tho roll was made 3 cents a bushel more to draw that wheat from his farm nine miles to a railroad station than 1t cost to carry a busl1ei of wheat from New York to Liverpool. a distance of s,lo0 miles. The cost of a soft boiled egg, which is also closely related to the American breakfast. Is established by the cost of transporting the product of the hen to the hotel and not be- cause the egg wGs at all worth what was charged for 1t.
 Cost Per Ten Per AEIle.
 Everybody who thinks must concede the evident fact that if q farmer with two horses can draw but 500 pounds to market in five hours. he would save money ii with one horse he could haul 1900 pounds in two hours. Were the roadS In good condition he could do that and more. Any uaytng in haul ing a ton of farm product would bring to the consumer, and if the product hauled each year vas large. 1t Is not hard to figure that the saving would be large. Figures have been assembled to prove that owing to the frightful condition of almost ail .Alnerican roads 1t cost 2b cents a ton mIle to haul. The superb roads of the old countries n< He,,Sat Nra vNraufh1Mr ~ of farm products at IF cents ton a mile.
 Therefore. every ton hauled costs the American farmer l3 cents more per mile than the fsrmers of the old coun. try are forced to pay. The average length of haul of farm products in the United States is 9l miles: there of France. the farmers gain would be s.4 times is cents. or approximately s1. 2s g
 Let us see what that amounts to in a year in hauling. but portion of the prodncts which traverse Nhe coun- pertinent of Agriculture. through it's Ofice of Public Roads has collected the figures and they may be accepted as approximately accurate During the crop year of 1905-6. S5.4s7. .000, 900 pounds of farm products, consisting of barley, corn. cotton. Aaxseed. hemp. hops, oats, beans rice, toRaceo, wheat where they originated to shipping
 This vast weight did not by any means, Include all of the crops pro- duced, the most notable exceptions be- ing truck products and orchard pro- duets the tonnage of those two amounting high ip the millions Neither did 1t include any figures for forest or mine products, nor for those things which so in. wagons from the cities back to the country districts. Were all those included. one may cas- fly see what a vast annual saving would be made. As t is, however of of lS cents per ton mile. the cash ben- eft to the farmers would be &5s.soo.- 0O0.
 Beyond that. however. the, Inter- state Commerce Commission has as- sembled other freight hguFes. most conservative estimate and most liberal deductions from their figures tending to prove that 26e,o00,e0e pounds are annually hauled. By the same method of figuring as that adopted above, the hauling of this would result in a saving of about s305, 00o.o00 year. It would appear that so vast a sum should not be annually thrown away, iHPAa .f"vcO - ICpRohSAOAc TUT appropriations of money to construct roads cannot be, brought to a realiza- tion of their tremendous importance. The time for an awakening Is here. |, and the quicker the awakening occurs. the greater the behefft the farmer win enjoy.
 To chasten ones speech, to elevate one's thinking.;to enrich ones vocabu- lary. and to stimulate, ones ideals, noetrv should he a mart oF oua,a datI,,