Barbour County index., 1910-01-26
GOOD ROADS NEEDED
Poor Roads Impose Greater Bur-
dens than the Expense of New
Good Roads.

who most constantly use them, but
upon the men and women who con-
sumo the products grown in the rural
sections and brought to cities and
towns by farmers.
No study can be more convincing
than that Of the economic waste plac-
ed upon the shoulders of the IS, 600, 900
people of this land from the almost
criminally shameful condition of 2, ,OOo,-
600 miles of road. Every pound Of
farm products brought from rural Sec
tions to thickly-populated centers has
placed upon it a fictitious value, be-
cause it costs the farmer more to
transport them than it would cost him
were the roads in passable condition.
The price of the lamb chop that Brook
lyn eats for breakfast is based, not up-
on the real value of the lamb, but up
on the cost of bringing that lamb from
the western fields to the Brooklyn
breakfast table. The cost of the
breakfast roll would be trifiing did it
not cost the farmer who grew the
wheat from which the roll was made
is cents buShel more to draw that
wheat from his farm nine miles to a
railroad station than it cost to carry a
buShel of wheat from New York to
Liverpool, distance of 3,1OO 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 intrinsically worth what was
charged for it,
Everybody who thinks must concede
the 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
1,2O0 pounds in two hours. Were the
roads in good condition, he could do
that and more. Any saving in haul
ing ton of farm product would bring
benefit, 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 fright
full condition of almost all American
roads, it costs 25 cents a ton a mile to
haul. The superb roads of the old
countries of Europe make possible the
hauling Of farm products at - cents a
ton a mile. Therefore, every ton haul
ed costs the American farmer 13 cents
more per mile than the farmers of the
old country are forced to pay. The
average length of haul of farm prod
ucts in the United, States is 9.4 miles:
therefore, were ourlroads as good as
those of France, the farmers gain
would be "a times 13 cents, or approx
imately S1.23.
Let us see what that amounts to
in year in hauling but portion of
the products which traverse the coun-
try roads in wagons. The United
States department of agriculture.
through its office of public roads, has
collected the figures and they may be
accepted as approximately accurate.
During the crop year of 19O5-O6, So. .487,-
100000 pounds of farm products, con-
sisting of barley. corn, cotton, flaxseed,
hemp, hops, oats beans, rice, tobacco.
wheat and wool, were hauled from the
places where they originated to ship
ping points. This vast weight did not
by any means, include all of the crops
produced, the most notable exceptions
being truck products and orchard pro-
ducts, the tonnage of those two
amounting high in the millions. Meth
er 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 vast annual saving would be
made. AS it is, however, of the fig
ures quoted above, at saving of 13
cents per ton mile, the cash benefit
to the farmers would be s5s, 300, 900.
Beyond that, however, the Inter
state Commerce Commission has as
sembled other freight figures, a most
conservative estimate and most liberal
deductions from their figures tending
to prove that 250,OO0, ,OOO,O pounds
are annually hauled. By the same
method Of figuring as that adopted
above, the hauling of this would re.
suit in saving of about s305, ,OOO. 900 a
year. 1t would appear that so vast a
sum should not be annually thrown
away, simply because those respon.
sible for appropriations of money to
construct roads cannot be brought to
a realization of their tremendous i'm.
portance. The time for an awakening
is here, and the quicker the awaken.
ing occurs, the greater benefit the
farmer will enjoy.-Herald, Grand
Rapids, Mich.