The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1910-06-30
MOTOR TRUCKS ON ROADS
Vast Difference IN the Cost Of Trans
porting Farm Produce on Good
Roads and on Mud Highways.

Culpeper, Va, Special.-A splendid
object lesson in the value of good
roads was given and the advan-
tageous use that may be made of the
motor truck, supplementing the trans
portation facilities offered by the
railroads to the great benefit of
farmers and owners Of industrial
plants and mines, not located direct
ly on rail lines, has been demon
strated in a striking manner by
the movement of car of coal from
the tracks of the Southern Railway
at this point to Sperryville, q dis
tance of twenty miles, a three ton
motor truck being used. The Is tons
Of coal were hauled to the tannery
in two and a half days, six trips be-
ing made. In the past it has taken
good mule team two weeks to ac-
complish the same work. The road
over which the hauling was done is
good hard road but leads into q
mountainous country and has many
long and heavy grades. The expert
ment was made by the c. C.. Smoot
Sons Company, which operates a
tannery at Sperryville. So satis-
factory were the results that the
company has purchased truck and
will hereafter use it in transferring
coal and hides to the tannery and
its products to the market.
The saving Of time and labor in this
case shows what can be done to re-
duce the cost of moving farm, min.
eral and industrial produce to rail
or water lines for shipment to mar
ket. Statistics show that while
freight rates are lower in America
than in any other country, the Amer
lean farmer loses the advantage that
this should give him over his Euro
pean competitor chiefly through the
high cost of transporting his products
from the farm to the railroad. Re-
ports by United States consuls from
twenty-three points in Europe show
that the average cost of carrying a
ton over a mile of dirt road is be-
tween ten and twelve cents. In the
United States the average cost is
25 cents. 1t has been stated that it
costs as much to haul a bushel of
grain five miles to a railroad in
Illinois as it then costs to send it
LOO miles over the railroad to
Buffalo. In the tobacco region of
West Virginia it costs five times as
much to deliver that product over
eight miles of mud road as it then
costs to send it more than 400 miles
to Richmond. These instances were
given by Hon. Thomas NJ. Bell, rep
resentative of the Ninth Georgia dis
trict, before congress, urging federal
aid for good roads. Others as strik-
ing could be given from all>parts of
the South.
"An improved wagon road from
farm to a market or shipping point
Is equivalent to moving the farm
nearer the market or shipping point"
said President Finley of the South
ern Railway in addressing the Miss
lssippi Society of Washington City.
In this address Mr.. Finley urged that
every possible means be taken to rid
the farmers of the South of this
"bad roads tax"
The successful use of the motor
truck by the Smoot tannery can
doubtless be duplicated in many parts
OF the South at the present time,
and the rapid increase in the mileage
of good roads in the near future m
the result Of the great movement now
attracting. so much attention, will
possibly soon bring the day when the
farmer or manufacturer, remote from
the railroad, can use this method to
effect great reduction in the cost
of moving his product to market.