Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-08-21
Losses Caused BY Bad Roads.

The farmer, and the business man
as well, has at last come to realize
the losses he suffers from bad roads,
and the magnitude of the movement
to better conditions is little appreci-
ated by those whose interests have
not brought them in contast with it.
The cost of bad roads has long been
known in a vague way, but recent
scientific Investigations have brought
the matter home in tangible form to
those who suffer from them. One
of the most thorough investigations
of the subject ever conducted, the
results of which are used as a text
wherever the doctrine of good roads
is preached, was made by the Mime
apolis Civic and Commerce Associa-
ton. While the conditions investi-
gated were those of territory tribu-
tary to Minneapolis, they are un-
doubtedly typical, to a greater or
less degree, of those existing else
where.
A committee of the association Sc
lected FIR investigation the farming
district, $50 square miles in area,
the trade of which is tributary to
Minneapolis. From a thorough can
vass of the conditions existing there
it was found that the 4,069 farmers
in the district hauled 100000 tons
of farm produce to market in 1911
and sold it for s6,665,6SO. To do
this they had to make 305 900 trips,
the time spent equaling 500 years of
eight-hour days and the distance COW
cred 88 times the circumference of
the world. Bad road conditions
caused losses in time, partly due to
slow progress, partly to the necessity
of taking less direct routes, and
partly because smaller loads had to
be carried. Detailed Investigations
showed that the losses in time were
as follows: Due to not taking the
shortest route, $4,000; due to slow
er progress, $4,000; due to extra
trips necessitated by smaller loads,
$159, ,000-a total loss of $296,dOO.
Losses from inability to reach the
best market, from the spelling of
produce, and from injury to horses
and wagons were found to aggregate
1921, 900; from restricted ability to
haul manure, s91, 900. The total
loss caused by bad roads was placed
at $60S,72S.
The committee made the following
deductions: On account of bad roads
each farmer lost for the year $40
for every acre that he farmed; 13
cents every time he carried a ton of
farm produce over one mile of bad
roads; 8 per cent of his total crop.
He paid as much for bad roads as for
labor; more than for feed for his
stock; 25 times as much as for fertil-
izer. The total loss to the farmers
in this district for the year from this
cause would have bought all the corn
produced in it, or all the wheat, or
the oat crop twice over, or all but
10 per cent of the potatoes, or all
the barley rye, flaXseed, timothy
seed, hay and forage combined. The
losses would replace the farm impTe-
ments or the cattle every three years,
the horses every four years, and
would pay off all the mortgages in
the district in three years, with
100000 to spare.
The farmers, moreover, were not
the only losers from bad roads. The
committee found that the worst sec.
tions of the roads they had to travel
between their farms and market were
within the city limits; that there
were approximately $500 business
houses in Minneapolis, employing
5000 wagons, whose loss from bad