Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1910-08-18
IMPORTANCE OF
GOOD ROADS
SOME FACTS THAT FARMERS
CAN WELL CONSIDER. RE-
DUCED EXPENSE IN
!.
HAULING

SIDE 10 { ne prODlem. IQe average
cost of hauling ton one mile on the
ordinary country roads is 25 cents,
while the average price of hauling
one ton one mile on the railroads
is y to 1c. In other words, the
cost of hauling is 33 times as much
with team and wagon as with steam.
This has been accomplished by num-
Der Of factors. Some of these can be
and must be considered in making
good roads, that is, to have a good
hard road bed and to eliminate
grades The railroads do not as a
dule have a grade of more than 3
per cent, some of them have adopted
2 per cent as the maximum grade:
Two per cent would mean a rise of
2 feet in 100 feet. This would
not be considered much of grade on
the ordinarily road, but this is the way
it works out.
A team can exert pull on short
distance Of Y it's weight, but for or
dinary work the load it can pull
should not be over 1-10 the weight
of the team, for instance, a team
weighing 5000 pounds can exert q
pull of 800 pounds, that is when 1t
is to continue the work for say ~
hours. While for small stretch 1t
would be able to exert pull of 1900
pounds. This. however, is putting
forth all the energy of which they
are capable. It has also been found
that tn e pull required to take ton
over the ordinary roads Is $50
pounds. supposing, then, that the
load is one ton and the wagon weighs
1900 pounds, this would make to-
tai of $500 pounds, and at the rate
of 100 pounds per ton would make
a total of 264 pounds, a little less
than the team is capable of hauling.
In fact it could very nicely handle
500 pounds more which would bring
the pull up to 800 pounds, and max
ing the load $500 pounds. This,
however, is for the level. AS a
grade is approached, this, of course,
will be increased. A per cent grade
would increase the draft of the wagon
and load $500 pounds by 315 pounds,
bringing it up to $40 pounds which
is almost twice what the team can
handle as regular thing. If the
grade is increased to 20 per cent or
20 feet in hundred feet the draft
on this same load would come to
little over 1900 pounds, or the maxi
mum that, this team could pull when
exerting its utmost power. Any
grade beyond this would mean that
the load would have, to be reduced,
and in fact no team should be re-
quired to have to pull to its maxi
mum capacity. From this then it is
evident that increasing the grade in
creases the draft very fast and hence
grades should be eliminated as far as
it is possible.
On the Macadam road team can
pull three times as much on the level
az on the good earth road, but the in
crease In draft up grade remains the
same as on the earth road, so that
grade would be more Objectionable
on q Macadam road than on 9 poor
road. On the level a 5000 pound
team could easily handle tons,
while the maximum grade that it
could pull up with such load would
be a 10 per cent grade. and even
that is more than should be expected
from the team.
There is very little marked tenden-
5cy in the west Of running roads on
the section lines. This is good where
the land is level, but where there
are hills it is usually advisable to go
around rather than to go over them,
at least where this can be done. and
thus avoid sleeper grade. There
is also this objection to cuts and fills;
that it brings up q soil that ie not
good for road making and one that
washes easily and the expense OF cut
ting down hills is usually greater
than would be the cost Of buying g
right Of way around the hill and thus
avoid the grade. Railroad engineers
win make considerable curves in the
roads ii, order to avoid grades, and
they have the problem very carefully
studied out and they will often times.
make q detour Of 9 good many miles Hes
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