140 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



the farmer haul two loads at one trip instead of one 

 load at two trips ; or, it doubles the size of the load 

 and cuts in two the tractive power necessary to 

 transport farm produce. With less capital tied up 

 in horses there is more cash to put into equipment 

 to produce more cash. The concrete road reduces 

 the strain on horses and lengthens their lives. It 

 reduces wear on wagons and harness. Where motor 

 trucks are used it lessens tire and fuel expense. It 

 puts the farmer in a state of preparedness to reach 

 markets quickly when prices are best, and he can 

 take his profits and get home with more cash than 

 he could by slow hauling on a bad road. It adds to 

 the acreage value of a farm because it increases its 

 earning possibilities. A concrete road makes all of 

 these advantages permanent, bringing its toll of 

 profit to the farmer daily in the form of time, money 

 and effort saved. 



How Concrete Roads Benefit a Community 



Concrete roads are country boulevards. They 

 benefit a community in making travel quick, safe, 

 easy, clean and comfortable. They extend neighbor- 

 hood limits, bring more people into personal touch 

 with each other, increase social opportunities and 

 thereby remove the monotony of isolation ; bring 

 greater content to the youth on the farm, make city 

 and country near neighbors, and increase school at- 

 tendance, thus cultivating a desire for a broader 

 knowledge and higher standards of living. 



Concrete roads make daily rural mail delivery 

 a fact; every home unit in the community is put on 

 the news-wire with the political, financial, indus- 

 trial and trading centers of the earth. The best 

 thought of the world in every line of human effort 

 and human achievement is transmitted over night 

 to the breakfast table of the community served by a 

 network of concrete roads. 



A concrete road saves more than it costs. It is 

 open to maximum traffic all the year round. It 

 brings greater freedom and ease of movement in 

 travel and transportation, and permanently in- 

 creases land values. 



All of the benefits derived from a concrete road 

 are lasting. 



RUSSIAN NOTES 



Immense as has been the railroad development 

 in Russia, the deepening of inland waterways has 

 proceeded at almost the same speed. During the 

 period of time that it has taken the railroads to 

 treble their mileage, the river and canal systems 

 have increased 195.9 per cent. Navigation like- 

 wise has kept pace with the increased facilities, 

 steam navigation having increased one and a half 

 times during a period of six years, and the sail and 

 barge craft having doubled. 



The Ministry of Ways of Communication in 

 preparing its report gives the following statistics : 



During the last five years the inland waterways 

 have borne 30 per cent of the total freight move- 

 ments of European Russia. 



Inland waterway shipping is divided into two 

 classes : steam and other motive power. Steam ves- 

 sels numbered 4,884 with a valuation of 183,200,000 



rubles; sail and barge craft numbered 22,511 at a 

 valuation of 90,000,000 rubles. The development 

 in sail and barge craft has been along the line of 

 tonnage rather than of number of vessels, there 

 being but 15 per cent increase in number of vessels, 

 while the tonnage increase has been more than 

 double. Thus in 1884 the largest craft had a ca- 

 pacity of 3,650 tons, whereas now there are barges 

 _on the Volga with a capacity of over 10,000 tons. 



Thousands of war prisoners are employed in 

 the improvement of inland waterways, extensive 

 lock systems being built on the Don, Donetz and 

 Sheksni rivers. The enlargement of tonnage with 

 vessels drawing more water has necessitated the 

 deepening of river channels. The same factor has 

 resulted in the broadening of canals, among the 

 most important being Vaserinsk canal of the White 

 Sea to the Petrograd system. By June of this year 

 this canal will have been transformed into a ship 

 canal, making Petrograd an open port. 



The importance of the lumber industry in Rus- 

 sia is figuring largely in the plans for Russia's ex- 

 port trade after the close of the war. The demand 

 for building materials will be unprecedented and the 

 vast resources of Russia's forest wealth have 

 scarcely been more than touched. Furthermore, 

 hundreds of square miles of forest in the crown 

 lands, now confiscated, are available for exploita- 

 tion. With the marvelous increase in the harbor 

 facilities of Archangel and Vladivostock and the 

 extension of railroads in the forested districts, this 

 industry has a big future. In 1913, the last year of 

 normal export, lumber worth 165,000,000 rubles was 

 exported. By the closing of the Baltic ports this 

 export has been reduced to a valuation of 27,200,000 

 rubles. Vast stores of timber have accumulated, 

 and in Archangel alone 65,000,000 rubles worth of 

 timber is ready for shipment. In 1916, when an 

 increase in exports is noticed, little big timber was 

 shipped, the exports being mainly pine for matches 

 and spruce for paper pulp. Domestic consumption 

 of timber has been large, a considerable quantity 

 being required for military purposes. The demand 

 for railroad ties has been great and the erection of 

 factories all over the country at a time when un- 

 usually heavy demands were made upon railroad 

 facilities has caused many of these factories to burn 

 wood instead of coal. As, however, the Ministry of 

 Agriculture possesses a modern and progressive 

 Forestry Bureau, this use of timber fuel is being 

 managed in such a way as to increase rather than 

 deplete the great forests of Russia. 



SEND $1.50 FOR THE IRRIGATION AGE 

 ONE YEAR AND THE PRIMER OF 

 IRRIGATION. 



