Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1913-11-28
LONGEST WAY AROUND
MOST ECONOMICAL. WAY
HOME IN ROAD BUILDING
Department of Agriculture Advises
Cutting Out OF Grades on High
ways, Even at the Expense of Some
Tiliable Land.

WASHINGTON, y. c. Nov 26-
The average life Of horses and auto
mobiles may be increased and the
cost of hauling reduced, according
to the Office of Roads, Of the Depart
ment Of Agriculture, by relocating
many old roads and the more scien-
tifc laying out of the new ones. The
natural tendancy in road building is
to build a straight road. whether it
goes over steep hills or grades. or
not, and pulling over these grades
naturally adds to the wear and tear
on horses and vehicles.
The doctrine of the Office of Roads
is that the longest way around may
often be the shortest and most eco
nomical way home, and that fire.
quently by building highway around
hill or grade, but little appreciable
distance is added and this is more
than Offset by the reduced strain Of
hauling
The chief drawback from the farm
owners point of view Is that the lay
ing out of roads on this principle Of
avoiding grades necessitates, in some
cases, running the road through good
farm land or orchards or pastures,
instead of going around the farm line
and building the road through old
WORKOUT fields and over rocky knolls.
This, of course, must raise a ques-
ton in the mind of the individual
land owner as to whether the cutting
up of his property by a road yields
him individual advantages and so
benefits his community as to offset
the use of such lane for road, or
to overcome the inconvenience of
having his land divided. In this con-
nection the Office of Roads points out
that the running of a road and the
resulting traffic through a good farm
where there are good sheep, cattle
horses. grain. fruit or vegetables, has
a certain advertising value and in
many instances makes the land more
valuable. In other cases, the import
ance of such level road to the com
nrunity is so great that it would well
repay those using the road to give
the farmer the equivalent in land
equally as good in place Of what he
has acrifced TO the common welfare
At any rate, the Office of Roads
is now taking special pains to make
clear the economic advantages of
avoiding steep grades IN their roads,
even at some sacrifice of better land.
Investigation shows that the laying
of some roads over hills has resulted
more from attention to the preserva-
ton of farm lines from scientific at
tention to the problem of road Duild-
ing
According to the testimony of farm
ers, wher a horse might be able
to pull 1900 pounds on a level road,
it would have difficulty in. pulling
5000 pounds up q steep hill. The
size of the load. therefore tends to be
measured by the grades of the larg-
est hill on the road to market.
In a number of cases actual ex-
pertinent shows that the relocating
of roads around hills has been ac
complished, either with no addition
in road lngth in some instances. and
with the addition of only a few feet
to tho highway in others. The Of
flee knows of no case where a prop
erly relocated road which has cut
out grades has led to any question as
to it's material reduction of hauling
costs.