The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-02-10

through county, state and national aid
| for the Improvement Of our country
roads is equally justifiable and can be
defended
1. On the ground of justice to the
people i'm the country who are not re-
ceiving their full share Of benefits
from the expenditure of most public
money.
| 2. Because 1t would effect a reduc-
ton Of 10 per cent in the cost of living
and otherwise benefit people who do
not live in the country
| 3. The future Of the country de-
mands that the comforts of country
life shall, as far as possible, equal those
of city life.
Not Expenditure Question.
1t is sometimes thought that the
building and maintaining of good roads
will necessitate the expenditure OF vast
| sums Of money, but such is not the
case. 1t is not question of any new
| expenditure. The expenditure is be-
ing made now. 1t is a question of
| economy 1t is q question, not of
throwing money away, but of saving
the incalcuable loss that the country
| yearly sustains through the low eff
| cheney of its roads and Of increasing
the value of farm property by making
markets more easily accessible.
Everyone will readily agree with the
statement that good roads would
greatly increase the market value of
farm lands. If this were not so, then,
why do farms near towns where the
roads are not good, invariably sell at
a much higher price than those at a
distance? Good roads would tend to
equalize this difference and / believe
that uniformly good roads would in
crease the value of farm land by an
average of at least 81 per acre through
out the entire farming section of our
state.
THE profit from a farm, as well as
from every other line of business, is the
difference between the cost of pro-
duction and the selling price. II the
cost of marketing is too great to leave
q fair margin of profit, the land will
command a meagre price and its Gull
tiVation will be Improbable regardless
of it's fertility. In some parts of our
country, timber is considered an in
cumbrance on the land, potatoes rot in
the ground and fruit on the trees while
in other sections these commodities
are so high priced as to be beyond the
reach of most people and all because
the cost of transportation does not per-
NIT the producer to transport them to
the markets at price which the con-
sumner can pay. The question of roads
is, therefore, a vital one and is or
practical Importance as the only way
Of 80 Oh AI,o
market and thus increasing the profits.
Some Statistics.
From statistics collected by the
office of public road inquiries, it ap-
pears that the average cost of hauling
on our earth roads is rs cents per tom
mile while on the railroads, of whose
excessive freight rates we often hear
so much complaint, it has now been re-
duced to one-half of / cent. In other
words, it costs as much to haul pro-
duce one mile over a country road as
fifty miles by rail. To further Illus
trate the difference between good and
bad roads it has been shown that 1t
takes pull Of about 60 pounds on the
traces to haul ton on level ma
cadam road while il takes 100 pounds
to haul ton over a level earth road in
good condition. Where macadam roads
are substituted for good earth roads
the cost of. hauling is, therefore, re-
duced to three Fights. With earth roads
in poor condition the required tractive
pull is so great that it is estimated as
being on an average at least three
times as high as if the earth roads
were in good condition, so that from
these deductions an estimate may be
made of the cost of bad roads.
The resources of North Dakota are
almost exclusively agricultural and it's
other industries are dependent upon
its agricultural prosperity. In order to
get basis for calculating the yearly
cost Of transportation over our roads
the agricultural products for the year
1909 may be considered as average.
During that year the state produced
80, 762,000 bushels of wheat, 14,229, 900
bushels of fax, 2O,727,000 bushels of
barley and 49,600,000 bushels of oats
and 100000 bushels Of potatoes. The
1909 statistics show further that the
state devoted 6,625,00O acres to the
raising Of wheat, and if ~ bushels
per acre were saved for seed, S1,724,5 500
bushels were marketed. The average
haul to market is about nine miles and
the average cost of marketing is
placed at % cents per mile so that
in 1903 it cost the farmers of North
Dakota $500, 900 to market their
wheat crop. In leading European
countries the average cost Of hauling
over country roads per ton mile Is 10
cents, so that had our roads been as
good as those OF Europe we should
have saved $3,30O00O in marketing our
wheat alone. The cost OF marketing
that years fax crop in excess OF what
it would have cost on European roads
after deducting ~ bushel per acre for
seed was $4,000 and of marketing
one-third of the other crops named,
two-thirds being estimated as consum-
ed on the farm, was $780,700. This
gives a total of $4,625,000 as a very
conservative estimate of the bad road
tax paid by North Dakota farmers in
marketing the crops mentioned In
addition to this the grain was market
ed when the roads were at their best
rather than when the market price was
highest so that the variation in selling
price of only 2 cents a bushel, which I
believe to be a conservative estimate
of the loss. due to the impossibility of
taking advantage of the market, would
mean an additional loss of $2,402,0 900,
which would increase the loss to
S,027 900. If to this sum were added
the cost of hauling garden products,
dairy products, beef, hay and other
miscellaneous articles as well as the
return haul of wood eoaI prnxyiafovs