Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-02

here in Clarion county itself there is no dis
position to use Limestone for road building.
| As material for road building locally it is
considered impracticable. 1t is too costly,
so Clarion county people say. 1t is almost
entirely used by the farmers for burning,
the lime being immensely valuable to them
for fertilizing purposes.
All over Clarion county, as we found in
Venango, Warren and Forest counties, there
are vast quantities of sandstone. 1t lies in
the fields about the size of city cobble-
stones.
A Nuisance to Farmers.
Thousands of such stones are gathered
every year from one field. They make farm
ing difficult. In order to get rid of them
they are built into fences, or walls, around
the field; they are thrown down the gullies,
and, with the mistaken idea that they are
worth something on roads, they are thrown
on the public highways. They are so plen-
tiful, and although limestone is abundant
too, one is to be picked up from the surface
of the ground, while the other has to be
blasted and broken in order to be practicable.
One costs money, the other is free. One is a
hindrance to agriculture, the other as fer
tilizer is invaluable for land.
To the average Clarion county farmer it
seems like wanton waste to scatter the
valuable lines tone on the roads, when ne
can't find DUN ping ground for the numer-
Gus sandstone bouIders.
CIarion's Unpaved Streets.
Substantially the above views were ex-
pressed to me by S. B. Weaver, farmer of
Knox township. ut costs money to strip
and blast limestone" he concluded, while
the truth of the matter is that if plenty of
these sandstone boulders are filled in on the
road they will make it as solid as any other
stone. They are big enough in this county
to stand heavy Wagons"
We found that the main street of Clarion
town is the ordinary dirt road. 1 asked
County Commissioner Bell if no attempt
had ever been made to macadamize it. "No,"
he replied. Sandstone would never do for
solid macadamizing, and limestone is too
costly. We can get plenty of limestone
four miles out of town but by the time it
is hauled here it would cost 81 per ton. The
abbutting property holders who must care
for 60 feet of the road object to this cost, So
all we do is to level up the dirt with a road
machine.
The Cost of Macadum.
"I am heartily in favor of some general
and permanent road improvements, but I'm
afraid from our experience the scheme to
macadamize roads all over the State with
Limestone would prove too costly to be prac-
ticable. With such prices at home, where
we have plenty OF the stone, how much
more costly would it be after it is trans
ported by rail and wagon all over the State"
"If the money to paw for such a vast i'm
provement is to be raised by taxation the
farms of Clarion county would never stand
the tax" remarked County Commissioner
Mccall who was standing by.
But if the State Legislature should de-
eide on Limestone as uniform material TOR
macadamizing all the principal roads in the
State, and should appropriate s., 600, 900 an
nually to buy the stone and do the work,
large proportion of that money would come
into Clarion county in he'purchase of your
Limestone for other counties. Perhaps, then,
your farms would stand the tax?"
Permanent Improvement Desired.
This Ingenious proposition of member of
my party was met by another this time
from Commissioner Bell, who said: cor if
that revenue bill should pass and corpora
tions be compelled to pay their share of
State taxes, and a tax on money should help
to fill the State treasury, then the s., 900, 900
to be appropriated annually for roads would
not come out of the farmers pockets
A. c. McCombs, Esq, within the last
roads Of Clarion county in his buggy. His
business called him among farmers exclu-
sivelv. He has found decided sentiment
for permanent improvement in
roadways. One farmer, he said, told him
he would be willing to pay an increased tax
Of 81 per acre if they could have good roads
in winter and spring.
Sandstone Versus Limestone.
But Mr.. McCombs confesses that there is
! popular feeling among Clarion county |
farmers that sandstone will answer for |
nacadamizing. He himself believes that |
limestone is the only real material. He |
says sandstone crushes under heaying haul |
ing, is sensitive to the action of wind, sun |
and rain, and after it is pulverized makes |
the mud roads worse than ever. Mr.. Nc |
combs says the vast quantity of sandstone
10 the county, the trouble to get it out of
Inc helds, and the valuable uses TO which |
limestone may be put, on the other hand,
are the cause of this popular feeling toward
repairing roads with sandstone.
Yet there is much truth in what you are
old about the cost of quarrying limestone"
Mr.. McCombs. "I think the
county Commissioners are under the mark
vhen they tell you it would cost 81 per ton
o bring it just four miles to this town. 1t
Vould cost at least 81 25 per ton.
Making Quarrying Cheaper.
81 have an idea that, if in quarrying the
limestone, they would dig DRIFT mines into