The Dickinson press., 1911-04-29
SECURE GOOD ROADS
Problem of Vital Importance to
Farmer and Consumer.
Estimated That Poor Highways In.
crease Cost Of Living 10 Per Cont
On maeadam Road Team viii
Pull Three Times Amount.
(By w. c.

By W. c. PALMER.)
Good roads mean a great deal. not
only to the local community. but also
TO the consumer Of the products that
arc raised there. II the roads are
poor the cost of marketing will neces-
sarlly be Increased. It is estimated
nat the poor roads In this country
increase the cost of living ten per
cent. The average cost of hauling
n ton n mile on our common
e~arth-roads Is Is cents. On European
roads 1t Is 9 cents, while on the rail-
roads 1t Is about three-fourths of a
cent. At some seasons of the year
the roads become impossible. which
means that the products Of the farm
cannot be marketed to the best advan-
tage. They have to be marketed
when the roads are in condition rath-
er than when the price is right. The
question then becomes how to secure
these better roads.
In the first place it is important
that the road be as level as possible,
as a grade increases the draft quite
rapidly. The railroads, by taking ad-
vantage of this fact, are enabled to
haul big loads. Their grades. as a
rule, do not go above 3 per cent.
Some have adopted 2 per cent. as
the maximum grade; 2 per cent.
means a rise Of two feet in a hun.
dred.
A team a exert a pull on a short
distance of one-half its weight, but
for ordinary work the load It can
pull should not be over one-tenth the
weight Of the team; for instance, a
team weighing 5000 pounds can exert
a pull of 300 pounds; that is, when it
is to continue the work for say ten
hours. While for a small stretch it
would be able to exert a pull of 1900
pounds. This, however, is putting
forth all the energy Of which they are
capable. It has been found that the
pull required to take a ton over the
ordinary roads Is 100 pounds. Sup
posing then that the load Is one ton
and the wagon weighs 1900 pounds,
this would make a total of $500
pounds, and at the rate of 100 pounds
per ton would make a total of 264
pounds, a little less than the team ia
capable Of hauling, In fact it could
very nicely handle 500 pounds more,
which would bring the pull up to 300
pounds, and making the load $500
pounds. This, however, Is for the
level. AS a grade is approached this,
of course, will be increased. A s
per cent. grade would increase the
draft Of the wagon and load of $500
pounds by 315 pounds, bringing it up
to 579 pounds, which is almost twice
what the team can handle as q regu-
lar thing. If the grade is increased at
20 per cent. or 20 feet in a hundred
feet the draft on this same load would
come to a little over 1900 pounds, or
the maximum that this team could
pull when exerting its utmost power.
Any grade beyond this would mean
that the load would have to be re-
duced, and in fact no team should be
required to have to pull to it's maxi.
mum capacity. From this then It is
evident that increasing the grade in
creases the draft very fast and hence
grades should be eliminated. as far as
1t Is possible.
On the macadam road a team a
pull three times as much on the level
as on the good earth road, but the in
crease in draft up a grade remains
the same az on the earth road, so
that a grade would be more objec-
tionable on a macadam road than on
a poor road. On the level a $1,000
pound team could easily handle four
tons, while the maximum grade that
it could pull up with such a load
would be a ten per cent. grade. and
even that is more than should be ex-
pected from the team.
There Is a very marked tendency
In the west Of running roads on the
section lines. This is good where the
land is level. but where there are