Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1908-12-20
THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF GOOD
ROADS.

1hE EtUNUMIC VALUE vi 6UUD
ROADS.
II the educational efforts directed
toward the improvement of our
highways do not bear fruit in the
near future in concerted move
ment throughout the country to
build up a magnificent system of
good public roads it will be a sur
prise to the world outside of this
country which is aware of the al
most criminal neglect of our high
ways and of the tremendous bur-
dens imposed upon agricultural in
terests as a result That a people so
resourceful, so liberal in their ex-
penditures. and SO disposed to Sc
cure the best of everything by dis
counting the future. if necessary,
should have been contented to go
along with the miserable avenues of
travel afforded in the greater part
of the country, unkept sand beds and
clay beds, frequently impossible and
always difficult of passage for heavy
loads, is one of the great surprises
to the traveller who finds so much
else that is progressive and enter
prising in our people to admire
Sumter county is greatly interested
in the question OF improved public
highways. We are gradually i'm
proving them it is true, but the pro-
gress is far from being as rapid
as it should be. We are postponing
the progress of the country by our
remissness in this respect Sooner
or later, no doubt, bonds will be
issued and roadway work be done on
the scale, and Of the quality, that
is demanded by the necessities of
our farmers.
. A recent writer on the subject has
this to say of the general subject of
highways in this country and the
economic results of our policy OF
continued neglect:
No more convincing study can be
had than that of the economic waste
placed upon the shoulders of the 85,-
100000 people of this land from the
almost criminally shameful condi-
ton of 100000 miles of road Ev-
cry pound of farm products brought
from rural sections to thickly popu-
lated centers has placed upon it a
fictitious value, because it costs the
farmer more to transport it than it
would cost him were the roads in
passable condition. The price OF
the lamp chop that Madam Brooklyn
has for breakfast is based not upon
the real value of the unfortunate
lamb but upon the cost of bringing
that lamb from the Western fields to
the Brooklyn breakfast table The
cost of the breakfast roll would be
but trifling did it not cost the farm
er who grew the wheat from which
the roll was made 1.8 cents bushel
more to draw that wheat from his
farm nine miles to railroad station
than it cost to carry a bushel of
wheat from New York to Liverpool
distance of 800 miles The cost
of 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 because
the egg was at all worth what was
charged for it,
Everybody who thinks must con-
cede that evident fact that If a
farmer with two horses can draw
but 600 pounds to market in FIVE
hours, he would save money if with
one horse he could haul / 200 pounds
in two hours. Were the roads in
good condition he could do that and
more. Any saving in hauling a ton
of farm product would bring a bene-
fit not alone to the farmer but to
the consumer, and if the product
hauled each year was large it is not
hard to figure that the saving would
be large Figures have been assem-
bled to prove that owing to the
frightful condition of almost all Am
erican roads it cost Is cents a ton a
mile to haul. The superb roads of
the old countries of Europe make
possible the hauling of farm pro-
ducts at II cents ton mile. There
fore every ton hauled costs the Am
erican farmer 13 cents more per
mile than the farmers of the old
country have to pay The average
length of haul of farm products in
the United States is 9.4 miles; there
fore, were our roads as good as
those of France the farmers gain
wogld be 81 times 13 cents, or
approximately $123.
let rs sec what that amounts to
In year IN hauling put a portion
OF tie products which traverse the
couEt.y roads in wagons. The
Uni-e States Department of Agricul-
ture, through its Office of Public
Roads. has collected the figures
and they may be accepted as ap-
proc imately accurate. During the
crop year of 1905-06, S5,4S7, 000,0 900
pounds of farm products, consisting
of barley, corn, cotton, flaxseed.
hemp, hops, oats, beans, rice, tobac-
co, wheat and wool, were hauled from
the places where they originated to
shipping points. This vast weight
did not, by any means, include all of
the crops produced. the most notable
exceptions being truck products and
orchard products, the tonnage of
| those two mounting high into the
millions Neither did it include any
| figures for forest or mine products,
nor for those things which go in
wagons from the cities back to the
country districts. Were all those
| included, one may easily see what
a vast annual saving would be
made. As it is, however, of the fig
ures quoted above at a saving of Ii
cents per ton Il mile, the cash bene-
| fit to the farmers would be $780,
COO