i 
Vol. LXII. No. 2778. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 25, 1903. 
11 PER YEAR. 
FROM THE LAND OF ELECTRIC ROADS. 
A MASSACHU.SKTTH FARMER TAI.K8. 
Great Changes in New England. 
I tliink thfre is no modern invention working 
greater change in llie social life of the i)eoi)le of 
soiiU.eastern New P^ngland to-day than the electrh^ 
street railroads, commonly called trolley roads. A 
person returning to this section after an ah.sence of a 
dozen yeai-s or so must be impressed by the change 
brought about by the trolley roads in the convenience 
and ease of Inter-communication between villages and 
towns, and of these conveniences the farmers along 
the lines gel their share, as the cars stop almost any- 
wl'ere to take on or leave passengers. The fares are 
so very low—usually a nickel from one village to an¬ 
other—that an unimportant errand will tempt one to 
make a trip. In warm, pleasant 
weather in Summer, open cars are 
run. and many thousands ride 
just for pleasure, especially on 
Sundays. The cars are then al¬ 
most always full. In August of 
1900 and also 1901 I took a trip to 
the Connecticut River Valley and 
11 ]) and down the valley between 
Hartford, Conn., and Amherst, 
Mass., most of the way by trolley 
car, and it was exceedingly pleas¬ 
ant. As the cars run over the 
hills and through the villages and 
jjast country homes, a journey by 
trolley has much the character of 
a carriage journey, with no care 
for the team, and no need for ex- 
])ending pity on the poor horses 
if the day be hot or the way hard. 
The cars move fast enough to 
create sufficient breeze to make a 
ride comfortable on the hottest 
day. The cheapness and ease with 
which travel can be done by trol¬ 
ley cars, doubles, trebles, nay, 
quadruples communication of peo¬ 
ple with each other, and thus goes 
far to make rural life more pleas¬ 
ant and polish away rusticity. The 
trolley car, with rural free deliv¬ 
ery of mails, gives to country life 
muc-h of the convenience of life in 
town or city, and this, too, with¬ 
out lessening any of its own pecu¬ 
liar attractions. But it is not in 
.Summer only that trolley cars are 
used by pleasure seekers. In the 
rold long evenings of Winter many 
use them to attend Grange meet¬ 
ings, concerts or lectures, or other social gatherings 
in neighboring villages, and the ride, which pei'haps 
would 1)e unbearable in a carriage, becomes a plea¬ 
sure m the warmed and lighted car. 
I never cease to wonder at the docility with which 
the electric current serves man, and the exemplifica¬ 
tion which it gives of the transmutation of energy. 
The energy which is chemically locked in the coal, is, 
at the power house, liberated in the furnace and 
changed to the expansive power of steam, which in 
turn is changed to mechanical motion in the engine 
and drives the dynamo which transmutes the energy 
into electric current. This current is taken from the 
tiolley wire to the car, and a part of it is transmuted 
to light, a part to heat to warm the car, and a part 
to mechanical power again to drive the car. But 1 
will return to the use of the cars which this wonder¬ 
ful current drives. The economy of using the trolley 
cars for business or i)leasure is very evident. The 
cost of shoeing a horse for making equal travel on 
frozen ground would be more than twice as much as 
the trolley fares, and one has no trouble of caring 
for team or stable bills. I have heard it objected to 
the trolley road that many were tempted to ride more 
than they need, and more i)erhai)s than they can well 
afford, but such objectors would, I think, be benefited 
by a little extra riding themselves. They are mostly 
persons who do not see enough of the world and of 
their fellow men for their own best good. This in¬ 
creased richness of rural life of course reacts on the 
value of rural proi)erty. The desirability of residence 
near a trolley lin^^ will make property thus situated 
more ready of sale. Now, when I hear the purchase 
of a farm discussed one of the important questions is: 
“Is it near a trolley road?” 
The cheapness of fare and regularity and frequency 
HAZKL CATKINS. NEARLY NATURAL ^IZE. Ero. 113. See Ruralisms Rage 324. 
of trip lead many to seek work in neighboring vil¬ 
lages where they can do better than at home. I know 
of many who are thus able to work 10 or more miles 
from home. The writer, 22 years ago, worked in a 
shop four miles from home in Winter. To begin work 
at seven o’clock necessitated starting before six to get 
my horse cared for in time, and sometimes in cold, 
stormy weather the ride was not a pleasant trip, es¬ 
pecially as it had to be made in darkness at both ends 
of the day. Now such a job would entail but little 
expense or inconvenience. School children are now 
extensively transported to and from school in trolley 
cars, and at less expense, and with more comfort than 
they could be in barges. Here in Massachusetts we do 
not get all the benefits which the trolley might, and 
in my opinion, ought to confer. Our lines are not au¬ 
thorized to carry freight. In Connecticut the trolley 
roads run cars for carrying express goods, the mails 
and freight. I think the freight cars are run mostly. 
if not altogether in the night, after passenger cars 
cease running. I think our Massachusetts roads 
ought to be authorized and equipped for freight trans¬ 
portation as well. 
Thus far I have spoken only of the effects of the 
trolley roads which farmers and country folks must 
consider favorable. But such great changes cannot 
be without inconvenience or loss to some. The ex¬ 
tension of electric roads lessens the need for horse.s. 
The business of stables for letting horses has been 
more than cut in half. In a naighboring town of 4.000 
to .5,000 inhabitants 1 have heard it estimated that 100 
horses less are now used than before the advent of 
the trolley lines, and I should hesitate to c^iu^stion the 
assertion. Such decrease of the number of horses 
used must, when it becomes more general, be felt by 
horse breeders, and, I think, now in this vicinity it is 
affecting the sale of hay. When 
the automobile becomes common, 
as it certainly will, there will be a 
still further lessening of the use 
of horses and less sale for hay. 
The farmers must then replace the 
hay crop with some other. With 
the lessening use of horses on 
roads the bills for road repairs 
will be less. If horses and nar¬ 
row-tired wheels could be kept off 
our roads it would cost but little 
to keep them in almost perfect 
condition. This subject of road 
repairing is closely connected with 
the subject of electric railways. 
Many, if not all, of the electric 
roads pay a percentage of their 
income for keeping in repair the 
roads of the town in which they 
are; also, the great amount of 
travel in the cars lessens the 
traffic by horse travel on the 
roads, and it is the feet of the 
horses that wear out the roads 
most. I expect the time is com¬ 
ing when our roads will be so 
near perfect, and the cost for 
power for driving automobiles so 
much lessened that it will not be 
economy to maintain a steel track 
and trolley wire for running cars, 
but each car will be equipped with 
power generator and motor for 
moving itself; that is, it will be¬ 
come an automobile, though 1 
shall not live to see the accom- 
plbshment of this result. 
Massachusetts. m. moksk. 
R. N.-Y.—The changes Mr. 
Morse refers to are noticeable in New Jersey, where 
the crowded population of Greater New York seeks 
an outlet. One important line running from the Hud¬ 
son River to Paterson, N. J., has purchased its pri¬ 
vate right of way for a considerable portion of the 
distance, the tracks being fenced off from trespass 
where they run through fields and vacant land. This 
permits a much higher rate of speed than would be 
allowed on the public roads, and the plan seems de¬ 
sirable. A trolley ride through woods and fields is 
always more agreeable than upon the public roads, 
and it seems just to reserve the latter for other uses. 
The extension of trolley express and freight service 
is a much-needed improvement. New Jersey is behind 
the agricultui’al sections of other States in this re¬ 
spect. In Otsego Co., N. Y., we recently saw trolley 
freight service as satisfactory as that of the steam 
roads. Connection with trunk lines is made at ter¬ 
minals, and cars of freight or emiJties are hauled and 
switched wherever desired. 
