FUTURE OF THE TRACTION ENGINE 303 



tractor, with its capacity for making an average round trip 

 from farm to railway without rest of supplies, is the worst 

 handicapped of all. Taking advantage of nature's gift to the 

 animal, we have built our highway system upon it, rather on 

 the basis of efficiency. As a result of the system, it cost in 

 1906, when ocean rates were unusually high, 1.6 cents, or 40 

 per cent, more to haul a bushel of wheat 9.4 miles from the farm 

 to the railway station, than to haul the same bushel 3100 miles 

 from New York to Liverpool. 



In a report to the Country Life Commission, from which 

 these figures were taken, the Office of Public Roads states that 

 the cost of hauling with horses over our wagon roads is not less 

 than 23 cents per ton-mile, and probably 2 or 3 cents higher. 

 On the good roads of France, England, and Germany, trans- 

 portation with horses costs from 7 or 8 cents to 13 cents, or an 

 average of 10 cents per ton-mile. With universally good roads 

 the annual saving in our cost of hauling the products of farms 

 and forests to the railway would be a quarter of a billion dollars 

 on the basis of animal traction alone. Every argument in 

 favor of good roads for horse haulage is doubled in force when 

 we think of hauling with an engine. Better conditions for the 

 use of mechanical power reduce the cost in geometrical ratio, 

 until under the best conditions, as illustrated by the railroads, 

 the cost is a trifling percentage of the tax now imposed by 

 animals and bad roads. 



The steam tractor is not quite so badly handicapped by pres- 

 ent conditions as the gas tractor. In England it is used ex- 

 tensively for heavy transportation over public highways. With 

 some changes in the design of tractor it might be possible to 

 effect an enormous saving in America without such a sweeping 

 improvement of roads as would make the gas tractor most 

 efficient. However, significant of what can be done by the 

 gas engine on short hauls with frequent stops is the growing 

 tendency of steam roads to use comfortable gas-driven cars 

 for local and suburban service. In the United States, more- 



