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Show I !fr TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES J j The following table represents replies to a series of queries addressed the various Boardlriof County Commissio'ncrs jn the State; by the I Bureau of Statistics, with a view of presenting an authoritative table on the above subject in its relation to public roads. The County' Commission s' crs&L Kanc Morgan, Tooele and Uintah did not reply. I "-I Si I B Sr 1 .9 1 .as S a - .2i slrl le.6s last iV o .on o 3 o - o ft o 3 :? fc "a c :? o :? o Si- ctoB o..H 0ua5.cS0:En;rE:3h H ' . ' H Beaver 200 30 170 I 120 I 3 4 I Sooo I 3000 20 Farm produce, ore 20c! No data- Co. Commrs. Yes 1 to s $ "204 . Box Elder.'. 1000 500 500 400 3 5000 500 5 jRarm produce 20c. No data D. R. Sup'or Yes 3 Cache. 378 100 278 40 3 3 3 4000 5 Farm produce iSc. 240,000 ton Supervisor Yes 3 No roads. Carbon. 147 77 70 122 3 o o 4000 3000 10 Farm produce, coal 30c. 200 tons Both Yes 20 $ 400000 DavhU.:. 85 5 80 65 3 3Soo 2000 3 Farm produce 15c. 3000 tons Supervisor No I 10 600000 J Emery. 304 100 204 75 3 3000 800 40 Farm produce 20c. 1300 tons Both Yes I V7o'i6 Garfield. 280 243 37 55 3 3 -3500 1800 75 Farm produce Both No I 500 00 Grand 260 100 160 200 4 2000 1200 35 Farm produce 20c. 300 tons Supervisor No 1 450 00 Iron 200 to 130 130 4 5 3 3000 900 50 Farm produce 20c. 300 toas Supervisor Yes 1 to 40 150268 H 1. Juab 270 30 240 Few 6 6 3000 1000 6 Farm produce, ore 20c. 1675 tons Supervisor Yes V2 ' , . Htii K?,?c -' J - - I Millard 555 85 I 470 300 2 2 2 3500 1000 I 50 Farm produce No data Supervisor Yes 10 x'ooS'Si H i Morgan .. J ' -'3 H Slu!c IS s x2 140 2 2 4000 2000 30 Farm produce, ore 20c. No data Supervisor No" 2 f '000 00 ( ;i ?,fhrM: ;"5 30 85 A 5 I ! 35 200 35 Farm produce 15c. No data Co. Comm'rs Yes? 2 2,000.00 HIS S3 It Lake.... 500 75 425 All 4500 2000 10 Farm procTucc, ore 10c. No data Supervisor Yes 5 112,382 47 , San Juan..... 380 30 350 220 3 6 3 2500 1000 75 Farm produce 20c. 800 tons Supervisor Yes '3' 2,500 00? ' I Sanpete 430 104 326 200 6 5 3000 1000 Farm produce 40c. No data Supervisor Yes 3. 2,012.34. 1 , r' Scvtcrv 280 100 180 250 4000 2500 5 Farm produce 20c. No data Supervisor No I 3 5,600.00 ' 1 H S""1"1 00 400 300 4000 2000 10 Farm produce, ore 5c No data Supervisor Yes 4 4,000.00 iq Mr Tooele k I .. I Hi Utalu............ 500 85 415 200 2 4 4000 1000 4 Farm produce 7c. 300,000 tons upcrTisor YcT 2 i3,Toi.To 1 ' Z5?1.011 300 165 195 310 2 3000 non-c 18 Farm produce 23c. 5000 tons Both Yes -? 1.717.QI I H Washmgtoi 300 225 75 35oo 2000 100 Frim produce 20c. Both Yes 4 500.00 1 H! wf"0 3 2 s 25o 3 3 2 2500 1500 100 Farm produce 20c. 900 tons Supervisor Yes 1 200.00 1 ! XS ?rr 440 400 2 2 1 4000 200 15 Farm produce 8c. 3000 tons Supervisor Yes 6 4,000.00 I l Total......... 7894 I 2914 4080 3837 ; $I72 6o8.S7 I Hj Denotes that query was not filled in by County Commissioners. K , fc , D. R. Roberts, Hj Written for the Dcscrct Farmer. H TIlc above table obtained through' y the office of the State Statistician, has Hj several interesting features from Hl which qi number of very important Hij deductions can be made. Noticeable H' amon them perhaps is the manifest H lackf interest on the part of some of H our county officials in compiling the H obovc information and particularly B those who would not make, any re- H port at all. One is led to remark, H "No wonder that our roads are so B poor?' The roads question is the H most important one with which joun- H:; ty officers have to deal. a H The factors governing transporta- Hii tion are; first, time; second, the ton- Hj' nage or size of the load, and third the Hl wear and tear. These all figure in Hl the cost of transportation The great HK question is then: What is the cost j at pjesentjf. And how an it be cut H d9p'? !,And is jt worth; theexpense H and effort? H: " As the information is not complete in the above table we will have to roughly estimate some features in computing cost, etc. Take for instance in-stance the tonnage column, Cache and Utah counties only arriving anywhere near the approximate tonnage. In this discussion, some features which have a minor effect arc eliminated, elimi-nated, also conditions in the counties vary, which is left to the consideration considera-tion of the reader. The average load in the state on a good ,road is given as 3520 lbs., but of course a 1200 lb. horse team can moye 7000 lb. along on a good road very nicely. The average on $. bad road is 1410 lbs. and in most cases absolutely nothing. The roads a,rc practically impassable on an average of three months every year, and this condition generally happens when the most of the tonnage ton-nage has to be moved. The average price is giyen at 18c per ton mile for hauling. The average distance is 32 miles. Cache county tonnage is placed ot 246,000 tons which is "'no doubf much' l'owcr than 'it really ''is, and Utah 'county, at 300,000 tons, which is certainly very conservative, and docs not represent much more than the beet crop alone. However, suppose in consideration of the above facts we allow an average tonnage for each county of the state at 50,000 tons per annum, which I believe .s conservative enough, and we will use the figures for argument sake. The average load on a good road, placed at 3520 lbs; and the average price 18c per ton mile, and the average aver-age distance 32 miles, would make a cost of hauling the load that distance $10.10, On a bad road the average cost per ton mile for that distance, as it would be less than half the load and would consume fully as much if not more time, would considerably more than double the cost or about 44c per ton mile. the roads were improved so that the load could be 7000 lbs. instead in-stead of 3500 lbs., the time required being practically!- the same and the "same money nfadc or saved, and on twice the business done,, or at the rate of 9c per ton mile, (and probably one-half of our produce goes over a , bad road) it will be reasonable to presume that our loss on the entire tonnage is one-half or 9c. per ton mile and for 32 miles is $2.88 per ton, and on 50,000 tons will equal $144,000 for cacli county, and for 27 counties it aggregates a. loss of $3,888,000 per annum, and this is very conservative This as part of the freight tonnage only, and nothing is said of the passenger pas-senger traffic. Just double the above figures and you will come nearer our j real loss annually. Again, road building is easily ac- " cessible, the average distance being a haul of about 3 miles. A good j screened gravel or classified maca- j dami road 16 ft. wide, 1 foot deep in , center, tapering to 6 inches on the ' sides, can be built for about $4000 y pcr'lndb,"- providing ordinary f ounda tfo'n and drainage. j f We have aoout '8000 .miles ofjeounty roads in the state, (adding some for bounties. not reported) and the cqst of permanently improving them would be3 about .$32,000,000, All of our roads, however, do not need improving improv-ing -to .that extent, some good, well drained earth roads would do in some . places. About half of our roads rirc what may tic termed primary roads and need a first-class improving, and those-, arc the ones used most and connecting from county to -county; for a system of net work of well improved, im-proved, roads throughout the state. Suppose wc could (be persuaded: to spend part of our annual loss for good roads, say about $2,000,000 per yearj it would require for 4000 miles at $4000 per mile, eight years to do the work. This wc cannot hope to do; however, wc spend now upwards of $200,000 in the various counties mostly for patchwork. Turn this money into permanent construction work. Wc can co-operate and get more money,, say $2000 per annum from the state for each county Is $54ooo, add a similar amount by special appropriation appropria-tion from the counties, some appropriating appro-priating more, some less, and wc have $108,000; add a similar amount by special taxation of -districts, and we have $162,000; add the amount already spent and wc have a neat sum of $362,000 to spend in permanent work. The average cost at $4000 per mile would build over 90 miles per annum. In 10 years double this and so on, and in 25 years we can have the finest system sys-tem of roads in the country, the pride of all, but it requires a herculean effort. Wc have the men, the money resource and the material. Note the amount of dependance placed on our road supervisors and also the very healthy tendency to ward doing with that system and lacing lac-ing the roads in the hands of trained road builders. It is a business proposition, propo-sition, When we have the system of roads, and the road system and cin convince the people that they will get ue received, the money is an easy proposition, but not so under our present methods. No money should be spent until we change our t meni the money, the material and immedi scientific, systematic action, is; , e only assurance of success, |