Goldsboro semi-weekly argus., 1909-07-24
VIRTUE OF GOOD ROADS
The Highest Possibilities of
the Country Dependent
Upsn Its Highways.
Good Roads Are the Greatest Uplift.
ing Force of the Present Day,
and the Work of Improving
Them Should Not Lag.

Them Should Not Lag.
The Importance of good roads to
the people of the South and indeed
to the people of the whole country is
4convincingly set forth in an able and
exhaustive article by Logan Waller
Page, director of the United States
office of good roads, in the Depart
.ment of Agriculture, published in the
July number of Worlds Work.
Many of the facts and figures are
more or less familiar to those who
have followed this discussion, but Mr..
Page takes broader range than US
tual in the discussion of the general
question, and shows the Importance
.of good roads. by facts and figures, in
relations which have not heretofore
ibeen dwelt uRan in detail.
He shows that, according to the t1g-
ures of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission, the railroads of the country
haul approximately two hundred and
sixty-fiVe million tons of agricultural,
forest and miscellaneous products a
year, and he makes the conservative
estimate that two hundred million
tons, or less than 80 per cent, OF
these products are hauled over the
country roads. This does not take
into account the millions Of tons of
mineral products which are hauled by
wagon, or the products hauled back
and forth between farms and mills.
The average haul is known to be
nine and four-tenths miles. and aver
age cost twenty-three cents per ton
per mile (as against twenty-five cents
ten years ago.; so that the cost OF
this transportation over country roads
to railroads amounts to four hundred
and thirty-two million four hundred
thousand dollars, to which must be
added the products hauled to canals,
rwharves and docks for shipment by
water.
Half a billion is a conservative es-
innate of the rural freight bill.
The average cost of hauling on the
improved highways of England,
France and Germany is about ten
cents per ton mile, but even if we
could reduce our present rate by one
half, or to eleven and half cents per
ton mile, we would effect an annual
saving of two hundred and fifty mill
lion dollars year.
To this should be added waste of
:at least forty millions of dollars
year because of antiquated and waste
lful systems of road administration,
TO nf InCc
than two hundred and ninety million
dollars which might be saved to the
farmers of the country every year.
If we estimate the wear and tear OF
vehicles and the useless number OF
horses and mules, the sum will &C
several million dollars more.
Seventy years ago the charge fol
hauling on the old Cumberland pike
was seventeen cents per ton mile, and
this admitted of profit, and yet to-
day it is costing the average Farmer
six cents per ton mile more than that
There are four hundred and twenty
five million acres of uncultivated land
In this country. The possibility OF
bringing this land under cultivation
by means of good roads, and by an in
tensive system of farming to get the
best returns from it, is indicated by
the fact that the average revenue pei
acre from wheat is only seven dollars
and three cents, of corn only eigh
dollars and seventy-two cents, while
the average revenue per acre from
small fruits, in 1899, was eighty dol
lars and eighty cents. and of vegeta
bles forty-two dollars per acre.
There are eight hundred and f1ft.
million acres of improved and unlm
proved lands in this country, and it
estimated that good roads would en-
hance the value of it anywhere fror
two to nine dollars an acre. At a
average of five dollars this would in
crease our national wealth by fou
billion dollars.
Bad reads are a menace to healt
and an obstruction to our educations
development. The direct influence {
roads upon the growth of populatio
in a given locality is an interestin
and instructive study. In twenty-fis
counties selected at random, possess
ing an average of only one and ha
per cent. of improved roads, in 19c
the decrease in population average
over tI1irty-one hundred during tt
ten years between 1890 and 1900.
twenty. five other counties, seleeted
random, having an average of 40 p
cent. of improved roads, there was
average increase in population of ov
thirty-one thousand in each county.
A loss Of thirty-one hundred
against a gain of thirty-one thousal
is an eloquent testimony OF the impe