Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1913-02-06
NOTHING OF GREATER IMPORT
ANCE THAN GOOD ROADS
LEADING TO 1T.
FARMERS AND MERCHANTS TO HELP
Every Cent Saved in Cost of Trans
portation is That Much Added to
Price the Farmer Gets
for Produce.

In the upbu1ldlng Oh country towns,
making farming more profitable and
rural life more pleasant, there is moth
ing of greater Importance than good
roads.
Every farmer is vitality Interested
in good roads and should give the
his active support in his
community. The farmers are the ones
who suffer most from bad highways,
for the simple reason that the most
expensive transportation of farm prod
ucts is that from the farm to the rail
road station. The haulage to the
nearest best market or shipping point
must be counted as part of the cost
of production; it comes out of the
price received by the farmer for his
produce. Better roads will save hun
dreds of millions of dollars annually
to the farmers of the United. States.
Good roads facilitate and increase
communication between the country
and the town and therefore stimulate
business and increase the trading ra
dius of any town or city which has
good roads leading into it from the
country. Every merchant should be
a loyal supporter of the good roads
movement, which means a more pros
porous country community and that
the home town will get more of the
trade.
BY diminishing the expense of car
riage and facilitating highway travel,
good roads put the remoter parts of
the country more nearly upon a level
with those in the close neighborhood
of the town or city; they give the
country dweller every advantage of
the city, while retaining the greater
room and healthfulness of country
life.
The sooner we realize that bad
roads are in reality more costly than
good roads, the better. Good, hard
roads are the only sure foundation
upon which cheaper transportation
and greater country prosperity can
stand. And it should not be forgot
ten that the proper maintenance OF
roads is as important as their con
struction. If properly built, their
maintenance will cost much less than
the necessity of periodical reconstruc
ton where they are neglected.
Cost of Bad Roads.
There are 2,151,57O miles of public
roads in the United States. OF this
mileage, statistics for 1904 showed
that about per cent are improved
During the crop year 1866, about
SIS, O0O. 100000 pounds of farm products
were hauled over common roads from
farms to shipping points. These fig
ures do not include forest or mine
products or general merchandise tina
goes from city to country. 1t is evi
dent that the slightest saving in cos
of hauling per ton would assume
striking proportions when considered
for the entire country, says Bette
Roads"
Figures show that these great crop
travelled in wagons over countr.
roads 2OS, 432 ,644 miles, merely in be
| ing transported from the farms t.
shipping points. Investigations hav
shown that the average cost of haul
ing per ton per mile is % cents. o.
stone roads in good condition the cos
is about cents; on stone roads il
ordinary condition, IL cents; on cart
roads containing ruts and mud, 3
cents; on sandy roads when wet, 3
J cents; on sandy roads when dry, 6
cents. A reduction in the averag
: cost of hauling from % cents to L
cents would mean an annual averag
saving of over $25O,0OO,OOO. Thi
loss comes direct from the pockets c
the farmers. The railroads take tn
wheat, corn and other farm product
at the station and the producer get
the value Cor market price, of tn
shipment. If the farmers Of the n;
ton are paying 81, 100000 a day NOR
than they should in the cost of ge
ting their produce to the shippin
point, it requires no expert to sho'
that if they had good roads the
would be receiving $1,000,00O a da
more for their products than they al
now getting.
Every cent saved in the cost {
transportation is a cent added to til
price the farmer receives for h
products. The addition of $250,00C
600 a year to the income of til
American farmers would mean
great strengthening of the purcha
ing power of the agricultural classe
and a marked increase in agriculture