196 THE FAKMER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 



circumstances of his own community, will see many ways of 

 saving money for the public. My object in this chapter is 

 mainly to give an example of methods of study, choosing, 

 for a subject, the most glaring examples of wastefulness. I 

 will, however, take up one more subject, which especially 

 appeals to farmers. 



Next to schools, the occasion of the largest expenditure of 

 public money in rural districts is that of roads. In the dis- 

 trict in wliich I live we spend more upon roads than upon 

 schools. It is doubtless the case in many districts. It is a sub- 

 ject which especially appeals to the farmer as a business man. 



The cost of moving freight by rail varies materially on 

 different roads — probably from one-half cent to one and one- 

 half cents per mile, and averaging somewhat less than three- 

 fourtlis of a cent per ton per mile.* The average cost of mov- 

 ing freight upon the roads of the United States, as they are, 

 and one season with another, is computed by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture to be twenty-five cents per 

 ton per mile. This being an average, actual costs will usually 

 be higher or lower than that, probably varying from five or 

 six cents per ton per mile on roads where one horse can pull 

 two tons, to forty or fifty cents on roads where it requires four 

 horses to pull one ton. In 1806 the railroads moved the 

 equivalent of 76,207,047,298 tons one mile. Some of this 

 freight was moved over countr^^ roads before or after being 

 moved by rail, but not nearly all of it. Much coal, ore, lumber, 

 flour, and the like, never passes onto the country roads. I 

 have not met with any estimate of the freight traffic by country 

 roads, nor can I find data for making a computation. Although 

 the tonnage is large, the distances hauled were short, and tlie 

 immber of ton miles was small compared with that of the rail 

 traffic.f If we guess — for I am unable to estimate — the ton 



*The average rate paid by the public in 18'.)(i was .806 cents per ton per 

 mile. The average cost to the railroads was, of course, less. 



fThe price paid for hauling the rail trallic of 18!M) was |7H(i,615,837. 

 The cost of hauling the same number of ton miles over country roads, at the 

 estimated average cost of twenty-five ('(iiits j)er ton ])er mile, would have been 

 $19,051,761,826— an interesting fact, as showing wliiit railroads have done for 

 civilization. 



