The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-05

265 900. GOO tons passing annually over country roads in wagons.
 To simplify mathematics, figure the average haul at nine miles. With nine mile haul at twenty-five cents a ton. the total cost of hauling would be $59650o.000 wlping out the seg- 5OOOoO for about sixteen per cent of the products which may be delivered direct to railroads from point of ori- gin. and giving no consideration to the vast tonnage of canals, barges and steamers first hauled to wharves in wagons. and there is left a total of half a billion dollars as the annual cost of hauling on country roads. Were the roads as good as those of Europe the saving on that tonnage would be S250, 100000
 It Is not only the farmer who is forced to carry that burden Every body has to share 1.-the city man and the city woman, as well as the country man and country woman. The cost of the soft boiled egg that Mrs. De Bullion has for breakfast at the st Reckless Hotel has its price es- tablished principally because of cost Of transportating 1t from hen to hostelry The cost of the cream In the break 1ast coffee rests not upon the labor of the COW, but upon. the cost of trans porting that cream from dairy farm 10 city. The cost of the roll rests not upon the baker. but upon the charge made for hauling the wheat from west ern fields, first to shipping point. thence to elevator, thence to mill, and thence to baker.
 So the city man. as well as the coun- try man, Is forced to bear a share of the unjust burden placed upon the community, because the roads over which all products move are in such shameful condition that four horses on an American highway are unable to do one-half the work that one horse will do on a French highway.
 During the year 1906. 1t cost s.s cents per bushel to carry wheat from New York to Liverpool, distance of 3.100 miles. 1t cost the American far mer 1.6 cents more to carry a bushel of wheat from his barn nine miles to the nearest market place by wagon. because in many instances he spent generous portion of the day stealing fence rails from his neighbor's grounds with which to pry his wagon out of the sloughs and ruts with which miles of highways are cut up.
 It doesn't take a scientist with bulging forehead to appreciate the fact that all commodities may be ham dled more economically over hard. smooth roads than over soft bad roads, but it may interest many who do haul to learn the reasons why. Tests by eminent engineers prove that if horse can barely draw a load on 0 level road of iron rails, 1t will re- quire one and one-half horses to draw that same load on asphalt; three and one-half horses on the best Belgian block pavement; seven on good cobble- stone pavement; thirteen on bad cob blestone: twenty on ordinary earth road; and forty on 8 sandy road. The resistance in pounds per ton can be stated as follows On an earth road. 224 pounds; on a hard rolled gravel road, seventy-five pounds; and on hard smooth macadam road. forty five pounds, the velocity being the ordinary pace.
 It will thus be seen that were the roads improved, much larger. loads could be hauled with much less power, and that would involve an enormous reduction in the number of draft anil mals, or a large increase in the num- ber of marketable commodities. Inas- much as the draft animals now in use on American farms comprise 23,5OO 900 horses and mules, worth S4423, 697 .O00, there is no need of heavy mathematics to prove that the farmers might save round billion in money if they were forced to buy but one-quarter as many draft animals. The wear and tear on wagons and harness is also worthy of consideration, for heavy ruts and bad roads make the building of 500. 900 farm wagons necessary each twelve months. and the cost spent on har- nesses is so large that 1t would make a yawning chasm even in the bank roll of MT Rockefeller.
 One more argument in favor of bet ter roads which the farmer must directly appreciate. That is in the in- creased assessed valuation of his land. Good roads inevitably and immediate ly give greater value to the farming country which they traverse. That statement Is based upon solid figures gained after most careful research by the Bureau of the Census, by the of- flee of Public Roads, by the Land and Industrial Bureaus of twelve trunk line railroads, and by the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Depart nient of Agriculture.
 This increase has been variously es- timated at from s2 to ss an acre. and in 1900 there were S3S.5s1,774 acres