SUPPLEMENT TO THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



must be able to reach it easily from the farms 

 on either side, and that without going out of 

 their way. And in the matter of drainage, 

 which is of even more importance in building 

 a highway than a railroad, the task is more 

 complex. The railroad runs over low ground 

 wilh an embankment, and at convenient places 

 lets the water through with a trestle or an open 

 culvert. Such expedients are not permissible 

 in locating highways. The highway engineer 

 must select his route so that he can take the 

 water beneath the road-bed in covered drains 

 or bridges or covered culverts, and he must see 

 that the water which is to go below will be 

 concentrated at such places as be has provided 

 for its passage, for it would never do for any 

 moisture to get below the stone with which 

 good highways are covered. Now as to grades 

 on highways, the engineer must display even 

 greater care and skill. It is poor location to 

 have deep cuts or high embankments on a 

 highway, while the railway engineer can do as 

 much of this as he chooses and his company 

 has money enough to pay for. If he chooses to 

 go under a range of hills, he puts a tunnel 

 through, and there he is on the other side. But 

 these devices, which so simplify the work of 

 the railroad builder, cannot be resorted to by 

 the road-maker. If he is obliged to. go over a 

 range of hills or cross a valley, he must so 

 locate his lines that he can do both and still in 

 each instance keep within a reasonable distance 

 of the natural surface. And yet he must not 

 make his grade so steep that heavy loads cannot 

 be hauled over it easily, nor must he make his 

 road very much longer than a straight line be- 

 tween the points from and to which he is building. 



THE ECONOMIC ASPECT. 



The condition of the common roads has a 

 veiy interesting economic bearing of a direct 

 nature, and an indirect one not less important. 

 In the matter of the earning capacity and value 

 of horses and other draught animals the com- 

 mon roads have direct effect. If a horse can 

 iflo one-third more work on a good road and be 

 in a working condition one-third longer than 

 he can on a bad road, then his earning capac- 

 ity, and hence his value, is increased just one- 

 third. This assumption is based upon a very 

 low estimate. In all probability, if it were 

 possible to make an exact calculation, it would 

 be found that the earning capacity and the 

 total length of serviceable life of draught ani- 

 jriials would be more nearly doubled than in- 

 creased only one-third. The census enumera- 

 tors of 1890 found that there were in this 

 country 14,213,8;s7 horses valued at $68 each; 

 2,331,027 mules, valued at $78 each; and 36,- 

 849,024 oxen, and other draught animals, valued 

 at $15 each— making a total of 53,393,888 

 animals used on the roads, at a total value of 

 $1,721,535,798. All these horses and mules 

 work at some time on the roads, and indeed 

 much of the greater part of the total work 

 done by them is upon country roads and city 

 streets. If all the work done by them was upon 

 the roads, the increased valuation, based upon 

 the above hypothesis of earning capacity, 



would be $573,845,2(56, but as all the work is 

 not done on the roads, it is only fair to reduce 

 this by one-half, and then we would have, by a 

 general improvement of the roads of the 

 country, our property in horses and mules and 

 other draught animals increased in value 

 $2,866,922,633. I have no figures showing the 

 value of carriages, buggies, and other road 

 vehicles in this country. To put their value at 

 $500,000,000 would be 'placing it very low, and 

 there would be no chance to say that the esti- 

 mate or guess was exaggerated. Taking into 

 consideration the cost of repairs necessitated by 

 reason of bad roads and the shortened service- 

 able life to such vehicles, I feel sale in assum- 

 ing that with good roads these vehicles would 

 last one-half longer, and their value, therefore, 

 be increased at least $250,000,000. Taking 

 these two sources of increased valuation 

 together, we should have an enhanced property 

 valuation of $536,922,633, all brought about by 

 the improvement of the common roads. Mr. 

 Isaac B. Potter, the chairman of the national 

 committee on improvement of the highways of 

 the League of American Wheelmen, has assum- 

 ed in round numbers that the draught animals 

 in use in the United States are worth $2,000,- 

 000,000. He says: 



" Busy or idle, these animals must be fed and 

 cared for every day. They are boarders that 

 you can't get rid of when the busy season is 

 over, and it stands you in need to keep them at 

 work. Two billion dollars make a large sum 

 invested at 5 per cent, interest. It would pro- 

 duce nearly $2,000,000 per week. Then you 

 throw away more th;fn 16,000,000 of horses and 

 mules alone, and to feed and care for these it 

 costs the modest sum of $4,000,000 per day. A 

 little while ago a very clever and intelligent 

 citizen of Indiana estimated that bad roads cost 

 the farmer $15 per year for each horse and 

 mule in his service. This means a loss in the 

 aggregate of nearly $250,000,000 per year; add 

 wear and tear of wagons and harness, $100,000,- 

 000; depreciated value of farm lands, $2,000,- 

 000,000; total, $2,350,000,000. 



"Making the utmost allowance in favor of 

 the farmer, and granting the necessity of the 

 liberal use of horse-power in the maintenance 

 of agricultural traffic, and it is easily certain 

 that the farmers of this country are keeping at 

 least 2,000,000 horses more than would be nec- 

 essary to do all the hauling between farm and 

 market if only the principal roads were brought 

 to a good condition. If you estimate that all 

 these horses are fed an ordinary army ration of 

 hay and oats, it requires 14,000 tons of hay or 

 fodder and 750,000 bushels of oats per day to 

 feed these unnecessary animals, which them- 

 selves have a money value of $140,000,000. 

 The value of hay and oats fed to these horses 

 per day is about $300,000 or something like 

 $114,000,000 per year." 



These are large figures. Now let us see 

 what it would cost to do the necessary work so 

 that such savings could be made. It has been 

 estimated by the authorities of the stale of 

 New York that with $10,000,000 the roads iu 



