Rocky Ford enterprise., 1909-07-30
WHAT BAD ROADS COST

Americas country roads are so notor-
iously bad that it costs more to haul a
ton Of wheat from the farm to market
than to ship that ton from New York to
Liverpool. Americas country roads are
SO bad that 1t costs the American far
mer 25 cents to haul ton. when it costs
the English or the Belgian or the French
or the German farmer only from seven
to nine cents for the same haul. You.
Mr.. Town Man. and you. Mr.. Farmer
pay for the unnecessary waste Of those
bad roads. the town man BY extra cost
Of what he eats. the farmer by lsssened
profits on what he sells. The same rsa-
son explains why the town man pays
Sl.2s in spring for potatoes which cost
from so to Is cents in the autumn.
That may not b as striking . way Of
showing what bad roads cost a. II you
went out in your motor car and ..ruptursd
= pair Of $50 tires; but Il affects more
people.
II you want to know what bad roads
cost the country n . whole, keep in
mind that American FARMERS are paying
% cents ton for hauling. when Europ-
can farmers are paying from seven To
nine cents. Now. the Intsstats Com
msree report shows that the railroads
yearly haul 265. 1000. 900 tons Of farm
produce. and that the average haul from
farm to market for the whole country ID
nine and fraction miles. Put the cost
Of hauling at round So ton for the
nine miles. and you have the cost Of
hauling farm produce At round $780,
900 year. Half that cost Is waste
solely owing to bod roads.
Look squarely at the faetsi
Two hundred and fifty million dollars .
year wasted on bad roads. which the
farmer and consumer jointly pay!
The beauty Of the relentless scheme Of
things Is when we mend our ways-in
this case, mend our roads-nature not
only wipes out the deficit, she puts plus
to the account where there used to be .
minus. Supposing Of the 100000
miles Of roads in the United States. all
were improved instead Of only per
cent, what would be the result to the
farmer and consumer? First of all. the
big deficit Of waste on haul on storage.
on eornersd priees-wipsd out! The
minus goes off the rational slate and the
plus comes on.
Total up the whole cost Of bad roads
the waste on haul. the storage at water
fronts. the extra ipriee paid for food
owing To seant market in spring-and
you have an expense bill Of billion dol
lars year against bad roads. or. on
basis Of 100000 population. tax Of
$3.50 year. which every man. woman
and child pays for bad roads.
The results Of bad roads are yearly
tolls Of Sl2.5o against every person who
eats farm produce. That yearly waste
would build 100000 miles of No, / mac
adam roads every year; or in ten years
would turn every country road into such
. highway as the Romans famous Ap-
plan Way. basing the cost at the very
highest average Of $4,000 mile.
With access to market and best ruling
prices. net returns increase and farm
lands jump in value. 1t is an actual fact,
wherever good roads have gone. land
has increased in value from So to 50 an
acre.
Another curious but perfectly natural
result Of good roads Is population. Buy
ers buy more readily when they can mar
ket easily. Take these figures:-
In 25 oountiss, where there was only
l.s per cent Of improved roads, the pop
ulation decreased In the ten years from
1890 to 1900 total of 1890.
In IS eouIti,s. where 40 per cent Of
the roads were improved, the population
increased In tho same period 77e,0oU,