The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-06-28

OF grade greatly increases the cost of
transportation. At the present time,
the many steep hills on the roads
through the middle and western coun-
ties of the State, and a few in the
eastern counties are a very serious
drawback to travel and a very heavy
Item of expense in transportation Of
farm products. This fact becomes
very apparent when we stop to re-
member that the weight of the load
which team can haul from coun-
try to market is limited, not to what
it could haul over good part of the
road, but 20 what it can haul up a
certain hill over which the road pass
! es, or across a certain muddy fat
! through which the road may lead.
| want to show now what the maxi
! mum load is that a horse can haul
over the best macadam road having
: different grades
Load Horse Can Draw On Different
Grades on The Very Best Macadam
Roads.
Maximum Load
Rate of Grade. feet per
100 feet. which a horse
can haul.
Level surface, best macad-
| - - o'E'o
| l foot rise in 100 feet. -. 4,I45
| foot rise in 100 feet. 3.114
| feet rise N 100 feet . 2.4S6
| feet rise in 100 feet. . $500
| z feet rise in 100 feet. ;. . 1857
| 10 feet rise in 100 feet. l.O3O
| These figures show that an average
horse weighing twelve hundred
pounds can haul six times as much
on good level road as he can haul
up a hill which rises ten feet in
distance Of one hundred feet, and I
might say here that such hills are not
at all uncommon in the middle and
western counties; and they also show
that on such a steep macadam road
it requires as much force to haul the
, load one mile as it would to haul the
same load six miles on a level road
There is another feature Of our
public roads that is adding consid-
cradle expense to transportation, and
that is the unevenness Of the surface
| of the road. On the surface Of many
Of our country roads We will observe
small to large stones, ruts, mud holes
sand, ETC.. and all these when present
are adding considerable to the cost Of
the wheel Of a wagon rests on the
smooth, hard surface Of a good mac
/ adam or sand-clay road, it does not
sink into the surface and has no OBJ
stacle in front Of it so that mini
mum amount Of force is required to
pull the load forward. If. however,
there is stone in front of the wheel
1T is necessary for the horse, before
he can move forward, to pull, not only
Wv i'''u pul uc llluSl dlSO actually
| lift IA Of the entire weight Of the
load TO the top Of the stone, if the
vehicle has four wheels and one-half
the total weight of the load if it has
two wheels. Take a winter time dirt
road, where the wheel has sunk in
mud half way to the hub, or a heavy
sand road where the wheels are sunk
from four to six inches in sand, be-
| fore going for ward the horse must
either lift this wheel out of the mud
or sand, in which case he must NOT
only lift the entire weight of the load.
II all the wheels are in the mud or
sand, bur he must also lift an indef-
nite weight Of mud and overcome a
Considera BILE amount of friction be-
tween the sides of the rim of the
wheel and the mud or sand into which
| the wheel has sunk, before he can
raise tie vehicle on the hard surface
again.
I Go be continued.)