The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-02-05

Of Dwight Illinois.
To THE EDITOR: The farmers of the north.
west, and | would also include the farmers OF
Ohio and Indiana, have never had better OPP
portunlty of n practical ties, of what two months
of good winter roads could do for themselves
and the whole country than they experienced
during the months of November and Deem
Der OF 1886 This condition brought about
very largely the great Railroad FretgM Blotk'
abe.
Let us look for a moment at the situation OF
tie west during the Great .Hud Bloc&ddc of
1878, and compare 1t with our present pros.
perlty Farmers are able" says the Chicago
Tribune, "to reach the railroad stations on
horse back to get their mail and weekly pa
pers, but they can haul nothing to the rail,
roads, and take no heavy supplies back home.
Millions of dollars worth OF marketable pro-
duce are lying idle. Merchants are not sell
ing to an extent. Collections slow.
No prospect for improvement until we have
a solid foundation for the ordinary wagon
transportation" This state Of things contin.
ucd until bankruptcy threatened the west, and
for no other reason than that the bottom had
gone out of the roads, and there was no i'm.
mediate prospect of a change for the better.
Having nearly one thousand correspondents,
mostly prominent and intelligent farmers scat
tered all over the west, and being impressed
with the great importance not only To inc state
of Illinois, bat to the whole country, OF good
roads at all seasons of the year, and among
other matters of public interest, | asked them
early in the fall to report to me weekly the
condition of our country roads. With asplrlt
of public interest, thsy have now been giving
me Il vast amount of useful facts. | first found
that owing to an unusual dry fall all over the
west, nature had given us the first requisite
for every good and permanent road, and that
wasa
DRY, SOLID FOUNDATION.
As soon as these conditions have become
fully established the crops begin to move
toward the sea- board from NJ nnesota 10 OHIO,
and IN such vast amounts that the elevators
were soon filed, and the owners were obliged
to cry "hold. enough" and the railroads were
forced into refusing to receive any freight and
We witnessed instead of mud blockade"
freight bockage."
The question arises can any such state be
brought about so that We can at all times of
the year take advantage of high prices for our
products. This is problem worthy of the
thought of every citizen of Illinois. have
no sovereign balm to offer, but can only give
from some of my own experience, and the re-
suit of my observations.
ROAD OFFICERS
During the past summer, the township In
which | have lived has been blessed with an
intelligent public spirited and progressive
board of road commissioners, At the head of
the board is successful merchant, One who
could and did and continues to give a very
large share of his time to the duties of his of.
fee. To the roads he has applied the same
business principles which have made his own
affairs Il success, and | believe the assertion
that there are few towns IN this state which
hAtt. NJ all Of t1,,.,r
1t is also due to the road officers IN the Town
north of us and the town south of us, to state
that there is also upon each OF the boards of
highway commissioners a member of the
board who is also Il successful merchant aud
that roads in each OF these towns have been
brought up to very high state of perfection
Take these three towns, all adjoining each
other, and you see what can be done by bust
ness principles rs applied to road manage
ment. The very moment you are out OF the
jurisdiction Of these road officers you at once
observe change for the worse
ROAD MAKING.
Localities have much to do with this sub.
iect. But there is one thing in my opinion
that can and ought TO be done in every town.
ship IN the state Of Illinois, and that is to take
the water away from The road slice, Open
bitches will do much towards the accomplish
a
of the disease
TILE MUST re PUT DOWN
each side Of the road, and with frequent out
lets. The old wooden culverts ought also to
be abandoned and y to 10 inch sewer pine
put down instead. | have put down on The
roadside for the distance of 1000 feet for the
purpose Of obtaining good outlet for my tiles
six inch tile. l never hear any complaint
as to the condition of this road since the tile
was put in. All the labor and all the expense
put upon our roads is wasted if we allow the
water to remain upon the road side
Mr.. David McWilliams, one of our road
commissioners for this township, has given
me some facts Of general interest, which in.
sert He says: 81 regard the question of
drainage as the most important feature with
regard to our public highways, and the pres
ent board have given it their first attention.
The spring of 1878 found our roads in most
miserable condition. An open winter and a
long wet season tor aperlod of six months, had
put our roads IN such state that tor SIX weeks
not loaded team was able to re. into our vii.
lagc. Our roads were completely hattencd
out, and hardly trace of grade could be
found. The previous toard had adopted the
plan of making grade nearly four rods wide.
Another board had made narrow grades, Just
wide enough for teams to pass each other. We
lounu that the narrow grades were the best,
and at once commenced making all of our
roads IS feet wide, and 'crowning,' the same
from the centre. Under the old system the
plan was TO grade the road, and that was the
end of it. Now we keep up tue grade by the
continued use of two Morgan RCt Scrapers.
They are drawn by four horses, and have CO
us S. per day to run each. 1t Is the most eff.
ficient, economical 'rut scrapcr we have used.
and 1t will put in good order from 12 10 Is
miles per day Of 'rutty roads, At first We
found it very difficult to get the farmers 10 co.
operate with us in drainage, but by persever.
ance we have succeeded IN this respect Our
plan was, whenever we found water standing
on the road side, to get rid of it, and We paid