Milford chronicle., 1910-10-14
RURAL ROAD BEFORE 1MpRovrNrNr.

RURAL ROAD BEFORE IMPROVEMENT,
write In four good road states out
Of 6,OOO,0OO population there are 90
900 illiterates. Do good roads concern
| you? If you are one Of the 10000, 900
| people who live on farms in the United
States 1t is a fairly safe guess that you
know something about bad roads even
If you do not know and have never
CHANGED to cross the per cent Of i'm
proved roads Of the total 100000
miles Of highway in the United States |
Americas country roads are so no |
toriOusly bad that it costs more to |
haul ton of wheat from farm to mar |
ket than TO ship that ton from New
York TO Liverpool. Americas country
roads are so bad that il costs the
American farmer % eents to haul
ton when 1t costs the English or the
Belgian or the French or the German
farmer only from to cents for the
same haul You, Mr. Town Man. and
you, Mr.. Farmer, pay for the unneces-
sdfy waste of those bad roads. the
town man by extra cost of what he
eats, the farmer by lessened profits on
what he sells. The same reason ex-
plains why the town man pays S125
In spring for potatoes which cost from
90 to IS cents in the autumn.
The interstate commerce renort
shows that the railroads yearly haul
265OOO.OOO tons of farm produce and
ihat the average haul from farm TO
market for the whole country is nine
md fraction miles. Put the cost of
hauling at a round 81 a ton for the
nine miles and you have the cost Of
hauling farm produce at a round half
billion dollars a year. Half that cost
waste, solely owing to bad roads
The charge TO haul wheat from New
FORK to Liverpool. 3,1OO miles. Is 35
ents per bushel The charge to haul
bushel OF wheat from farm to mar
let, "a miles, is 5.11 cents. The stor
ge on wheat at water fronts is 8
ents bushel year
The results Of bad roads are yearlv
olls Of $3.50 against every person
'ho eats farm produce. That yearly
'aste would build 100000 miles of Al ~
lacadam roads every year, basing the
ost at the very highest average Of =,
1000 a mile y
The beauty Of the relentless scheme =.
things is when we mend our wavs -
In this case, mend our roads-nature 9.
)t only wipes out the deficit, but she -
Its plus to the account where there
'ed to be minus. SuppOsing Of the a.
OOO,OOO miles Of roads in the United -
-ates all We're improved instead of 4,l
lly per cent, what would be the -,
suit to farmer and consumer? First -,
all, the big deficit of waste on haul, ~,
storage, on cOrnered prices, wiped A.
L! The minus goes off the national
,te and the plus comes on.
The good road moves the remoteSt
rm right next to the market A farm L
enty miles from the market on an
the year round good road is nearer Els
lrket than a farm seven miles away
a bad road. Truck farmers in New s
rsey and Long Island can haul their at
'duce to market, thirty miles, cheap Eie
than they can ship by railroad and gal
It produce nets, according to well erv
own averages. as follows: am,
'ruit, $50 per acre; flowers, $1,000 4
acre; corn, IS per acre: wheat, 81 der
acre; oats, 81 per acre; vegetables, the
per acre. 49,
'ut In the DakOtas and Minnesota 80.
Manitoba farmers haul their prod tnsa
thirty and forty miles. but they can n
i 1t only when the roads are dry in .,
early fall, and at that season the =.
e Is lowest. The farmer along the "'o-
d road can command the best price
hauling only when the price is best.
he can also raise the produce that n,
IS biggest net returns. If you would .r,-
n why whole family can live. and 90
well. of an acre in Holland and -
gium and France when a family 80, 49,
n fails to live well Off 100 acres in 49,
erica s
ith good roads Dakota farmers -
under present conditions drive
deep in gumbo mud during spring =. :
d market their croDs vyhan nrioas ~ ~