Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1895-01-19

from Byrnes taoles au" ' '' Oon-
t;nuous pull. II the grade is short
anon. h SO tina. the load can be taken
mn at one straight pull, team will be
oble 70 do double the work shown above;
Int If it becomes necessary to stop to
take breath, then the extra pull required
to start the load will more than offset
this reserved power of the team.
1t has been said that most of our
roads have no bottoms, but 1t can more
truthfully be said that they have no
form. no defined width, no cutters, no
drainage, in fact, in the spring and fall
thew have nothing that commends them
to the general public excepting uncer-
tainty. For rural districts, a l6-foot
road is plenty wide. The road should
be we'll rounded and provided with ample
cutters or bitches at each side.
The water from the hills should be
taken up by side hill bitches and should
never be allowed to reach the road
Tbers is no che thing that would do so
much for our highways as proper drain
age. 1t will be long time before the
roads of Washington can be covered
with rock, but they might be fairly good
most of the wear if they were properly
constructed, and we'll drained.
The Americas farmer is slow to adopt
wide tires. In France market wagons
have tires from three to ten inches wide,
usually from four to six. The four
wheeled freight wagons have tires rarely
less than six inches wide. In Bavaria
the width OF tires is fixed by law. On
four wheeled wagons they range from
2.59 to 6.18 iuches In Austria they
range from 4. 33 to So inches.
On four wheeled farm wagons Mr..
Byrne recommends 5inch tires for all
loads up to one and half tons and for
all loads beyond this 6,inch tires. These
widths are recommended for easy trac-
tion and light wear on the roads.
According to tests made by the de-
partment of agriculture OF the Univer-
sity of Missouri, load of 1906 pounds
was pulled about 16 per cent. easier on
3-inch tires than on l J inch tires. Ac-
cording to tests made by Studebaker
Bros. load of $3.50 pounds cutting
into the sod one and half inches. was
started - per cent. easier on 3-inch
tires than on 15-inch tires.
If all farm wagons hereafter purchased
in the state Of Washington were equip
ped with 5 or six-inch tires there would
lie great saving to the farmers in horses
and harness, besides much larger loads
could be hauled across open fields and
over loose, soft ground. Wheels fur
nished with tires of that width would
not drop into ruts formed by narrow
tires nor would they cut up and rut the
road.
A heavy load resting on narrow tires
must OF necessity cut into any dirt road
and rut it, Wide tires would not cut so
deeply, and as soon as road commenced
to dry they would roll it down and even
Its surface.
In order to get wide tired wagons
introduced, our legislature should pass
a law giving credit on road tax to every
man who will use wide tired wagon
Such credit or rebate should only be
given for the use of wagons having tires
from four TO six inches wide. Such
rebate should be proportioned to the
width of tires used.
Our present system of road supervis-
ion is all wrong and in moat counties
costs as much or more than competent
supervision.
l have no quarrel with the men who
are supervising the construction and
repairs OF our highways. 1 believe they
are doing the best they know, but they
have not had the opportunity to study
road construction.
II each county can not have road
engineer then shere should be a tech
nical qualification required for all coun-
ty surveyors and the laying out and su-
perintending of the construction of the