The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1912-04-23
COMMERCIAL VALUE OF GOOD ROADS.
Their RELATION To THE FARMER,
CONTINUED from page one)

vi NVbtltDitb 1919 was pfI III dtTt
and of small fruits $50 an acre
The commercial value of good roads
therefore, would mean a saving OF q
thousand million dollars annually. II
would mean bringing into cultivation
vast areas of land now uncultivated
1t would bring intensive farming on
the lands which are now cultivated
1t would mean very much cheaper
food products. II would mean the i'm.
proved financial, social, religious and
educational condition of the farmers.
1t would mean vast increase in
the farming population drawn from
the congested cities for the benefit OF
city and country alike.
NJ Il Would Increase the Value OF Farm
Land.
We have about $4,000 900 acres of
farm land improved and unimproved
in the United States.
The good roads will exercise ire
mendous influence over increasing the
value of farm lands accessible to good
roads.
BY accessible 1t must not be un.
derstood as being Immediately on
perfected highway. 1t is an import
ant fact that a team of horses for two
hours out of a day can exert about
four times their average tractive force
without injury. For this reason they
may pull heavy load for three or
four miles over q dirt road to per
feet highway without injury and then
carry the heavy load easily to market
a long distance without harm, so that
the farmers within three or four miles
on either side of a good highway
would be directly benefited by 1t; and
with the King drag road leading off
four or five miles on either side of
a perfected highway all of the farm
ers of the country could be brought in
touch with good roads at minimum
expense to the great increase of their
farmland values.
Bad Road Means Loss Of Population.
The sections of country which have
lost in population by the last census
are conspicuous for impossible roads.
In twenty-five counties, for example,
selected at random by the United
States office of public roads, the pop
ulation between 1890 and 1900 fell
away over 5000 persons in each coun-
ty where the roads showed an aver
age of only ~ per cent of improved
roads, while in another twenty-five
counties, in which there was an av-
erage of 40 per cent of improved
roads, the population in each county
had increased over $1,000.
1t is density of population and ac-
feasibility of land which increase the
value of land
Good Roads Mean Better Schools and
Churches.
Improved roads mean improved
schools and churches. Where the
roads are very bad the children can
not easily attend school, nor can the
people easily attend the churches, but
with good roads they could do so. In
the states of Massachusetts,, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, Ohio and Indiana,
in which, in 1904, about 35 per cent
Of the roads were improved, n out of
each 100 pupils enrolled attended the
schools regularly; but in the five
states of Alabama, Mississippi, Ar
kansas, Georgia and South Dakota,
which had in 1904, only 1.5 per cent
of good roads, only SO out Of each 100
pupils enrolled could attend public
schools regularly. Thus good roads
enable 80 per cent more children to
attend school,
The Present Condition Of the Public
Roads.
We have today 2,155,000 miles OF
public roads within the United States
Less than 10000 miles are macadam-
lied or improved with hard surfacing
More than nine.tenths of the public
roads and highways of the United
States in the rainy season are almost
unfit for use, and large part in n
very rainy season are utterly unfit
for use and impossible, to the grave
injury of the farmer and the equal in
jury of the town people who depend
upon him for regular supplies of food.
In some of the states improved state
methods are being put into force, but
the department Of good roads of the
United States government should be
stimulated in the highest degree, so
as to furnish the people of the Unit
ed States with full information upon
the important commercial, financial,
educational and social aspects Of this
great national problem Road build
ing and road maintenance is a great