The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1893-11-02
FARM NOTES.
Edited by John c. Edgar Duval, to whom all
communications for this column should be ad-
dressed.l
County Bridges.

!
Agricultural Editor OF The Statesman.
read your remarks about the COM
missioners going to build four new
iron bridges without having the money
to pay for them or any part of those
now spanning the river. If the county
finances are In the shape you say then
God help the county. In times like
the present when every kind OF farm
produce, horses. cattle, ETC., are at
such improbable figures, and when
city merchants and taxpayers find
difficulty in making tongue and buckle
meet, it should be the study of the
money and tax-fixing power
the county commissioners-to exer,
else rigid economy in expenditures and
only do absolutely needful work.
am forced to the conclusion that
such is not their present practice
You said you supposed the new, iron
bridges were necessary, but challenge
your superstition, in so far as it applies
to the one now in course Of erection on
your line of travel at Waters
Though | live on the lower George
town read, l sometimes travel and
haul loads over the upper road and
know the crossing of Walnut creek;
and | have no hesitation in saying that
a bridge is no more needed there than
one from the corner of the courthouse
to the steps into the capitol building,
and ain surprised that one so critical
as the agricultural editor of THE
STATESMAN should wink at such a
souandeiing of public money. .
h. a4xy fg
appJey on bridges it should at least be
and led where it will do some GOOD
inc not be thrown away. The cross
soil of Walnut creek at Waters is as
an d as can be had on bed rock;
d the approaches only need a very
little grading to make that portion
of the road as good as any
between the county line and the
capital. l say if bridges must be
built let us have one over Little Wal
nut at Fiskville, which is a perfect,
and sometimes, impossible, bogholee-
a disgrace to our precinct commits
sioner and source of danger, as we'll
as discomfort, to everyone using the
road.
But l suppose you upper" people
have mora influence with the powers
that be- and are thus getting more
than you need, while we lower
folks are left to wallow in the mud.
You may think this rather hard on
you, but l feel hard about such an
outrageous discrimination and waste
of public money. e. L..
My esteemed correspondent is
"rather hard" on me and would doubt
less have been less severe had he
known the facts. The above letter
was the first intimation l received
that bridge was to be
built across Walnut creek
at Waters, though it is on my line OF
travel and only half mile from my
home. Thinking that E. l.. had mixed
Waters crossing with some other point
lower down the creek Gas think with
him, that no bridge is needed at
Waters) 1 did not publish his letter
last week. But to my surprise l found
on visiting the spot few days ago
that there was foundation for E. LIS
charges. found a gang of men en-
gagged in building what they call a
wooden BRIDGE" but what call a
wooden culvert across Walnut creek,
on the county road. What the object
of the erection is l cannot even guess.
1t is simply a wooden culvert with the
floor four feet above the bed of the
creek, and will surely be washed away
by the first quick falling 9-inch rain,
which gives a 6-foot rise at that point.
l haul all my heavy loads to Austin
over this point and quite agree with
E. L. that a bridge OF
any kind is not wanted. there,
but merely about $50 worth
of grading on the top of the hill on the
south side. At Fiskville bridge is
badly needed, and it looks as if the
parties sent out to build up this Gull
vert had misunderstood instructions
and come to Big Walnut on the upper
road instead of Little Walnut on the
lower. If this is the explanation the
sooner it is remedied the better, while
the material used is within reach, in
stead of waiting to collect its scattered
remains in the lower stretches OF the
creek.
Ihave made inquiry amongst those
using the road but have not found one
man who says the culvert is needed OF
can be of the least benefit to travellers
If the iron bridges referred to are
not more essential than the wooden
culvert at Waters, then is the taxpayer
being badly abused.-l ED.