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Show FARMERS NEED GOOD ROADS. They Arc the Class Most Interested lu the Highway Kerorm Movement. The Buffalo Express, after commending commend-ing the good work done by the bicyclists in starting the road reform agitation But this matter of good roads should not lie left to bicycle riders, who of course tire somewhat interested. it should be a fanners' movement, for they are the class most interested. If they produce crops, those crops must bo sent to market from the farms. Manufacturers, Manu-facturers, merchants and mechanics can and do congregate about the rail-mad rail-mad stations or points of water transportation, trans-portation, aud to them the matter of roads is a secondary consideration. Duly a very small projioi tion of fanners fann-ers are or can lie located close to shipping ship-ping points, aud nearly all have to haul their crops to greater or less distances in order to reach their markets. The cost of hauling is great as a rule, and principally so because at the seasons of the year when marketable crops are ready for stile the roads are seldom in good condition A French or English tanner will haul a load of two tons or more with a single span of horses 6ix to twelve miles to the nearest market town and think nothing of it. A western Xew York farmer thinks his team is a remarkably good one if he can haul thirty bushels of potatoes at one load to a market four miles away and get back in half a day. A year ago last fall he did well if he hauled twenty bushels at a load, or less than one-third the loail which a French or English farmer would take. Bicycles cannot be ridden over roads when the mud is deep, but there are fifty farmers interested in the "roads of the state to one bicycle rider. The great difficulty in dealing with this question is how to make better roads at a reasonable cost to all interested. Under our present tax laws the farmers now pay altogether too great a proportion propor-tion of the taxes. An additional tax large enough to amount to anything in making better roads would fall most heavily upon land owner3, and although the benefit would be greatest to them the extra burden would be beyond present pres-ent resources. Farmers naturally object ob-ject under the circumstances to anything any-thing of which the entire cost or nearly so will fall on their, shoulders. They feel that the merchants, tradesmen and forwarders are as much benefited by good roads as the farmers themselves, because the handling, moving and marketing mar-keting of the farmers' crops furnishes them the means of subsistence. But if the roads are to be improved by the state, as Governor Hill suggested, or by the national government, as is planned by tho westerners, who are circulating petitions for a law appropriating floOO,-. floOO,-. 000,000 to be divided among the states pro rata with the road mileage in the states, nearly all the money must come out of the farmers' pockets, and hence they object, ob-ject, to government roads. The question of good roads is not alone a matter of good grades, or proper covering cov-ering or surface material, or good foundation. These details are essential, but so is skilled supervision. The "path-master" "path-master" provision of our present law is a prime cause of poor roads, and until skilled supervision is provided for, there is no use in making a good piece of road. The new pathmaster the next year would tear it up to make it over according to his notion, not his knowledge, for he has none, or he would let it go because it is now good, and devote his work to some other part of the district, letting tho rains and wheels make sad inroads into what might be kept a good road with small but timely repairs. The gist of the matter is that both the tax laws aud the road laws need great amendment amend-ment before we may expect to see good roads, even though the wheelmen do their level best. |
