The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-01-15
ROADSTER BILL NYE.
A FEW STYLES OF ROADS THAT
HE HAS NIT.

@A NJ AZ w S4A4 - n 94A 0S
Vehicles Used in North Carolina.
copyright, 1894, by Edgar W.. Nye.1
Al HOME, JEST ADORE CHRISTMAS,
Among many letters received the
past week is one from Mr.. Earnest
Pickinpack, of Georgetown, D. O.,
asking once more regarding the roads
of western North Carolina, as he wishes
to come here with stone crusher. He
will do well, I think, to bring it with
him. I would not think Of going
three miles in this country without
taking my stone crusher and stump
pulIer with me.
A year ago at Chicago, as most every
n knows, I received at the Worlds
Fair the prize medal shown below for
the most picturesque display of roads
The particular exhibit which Won the
medal was a gallon of the highway
near the foot Of Busbee mountain, be-
tween my shooting box on the French
Broad and George Va~nderbilts place.
The exhibit was about the consistency
of mayonnaise dressing or r. r must
ard and of a yellowish red. You could
see that the foot of the mountain had
been bathed In it for centuries without
changing the water.
Western North carolina Is very
mountainous and therefore a beautiful
country, with the soft cline Of the
south, but the bracing air of the noun
tains along with it. The soil on the
uplands is Of a cherry red, such as one
sees on a cook stove that been exposed
for a couple of years and got tanned a
good deal.
These vermilion roads wrap their
long coils about the mountains of Bun
combe county and hang like angle
worms over the precipices. They are
festooned over the broWs of the Blue
Ridge or pour in venetian red cascades
over the corrugated hog backs of
Catawba county.
Many of thses roads liquify and run
like a scared jack rabbit over the
farms or clip doWnintSr the fields dur
ing a shower and remain there while
you wait. Ihave two stray roads still
on my estate which lodged there after
a long wet spell.
I speak thus freely of these roads
because 1 see In the nigh future the
dawn of a better day. Already 80 or
40 long time convicts are working on
the road from Asheville out toward
where George and l live. We have
the labor problem reduced to a science
here. Our motto is:
"Make the criminal classes do the
work and convicsa as many colored PEG
pie as possible"
This places the degrading process of
labor where it belongs by birth and
natural selections. So the colored con
vict is now at work on our roads.
The methods of building and repair
ing the roads are to be changed. For
merly the plan adopted along the
banks of Lake Victoria -Nyanza, where
the people live anonymously in trees,
has been adopted. When the roads
were too aqueous, irregular stones,
ranging in size from that of Daniel
Webster's head to the peewee eggs, are
plunked into this mud, where they dis
appear, yet they may be discovered
by riding over them as you hold on to
the seat with one hand and your noIe
with the other, apologizjng meantime
to the buzzards for soaring them away
from their dejeuner of dead horse. I
have even seen dead mules along these
roads, though it is said that the mule,
the jackass and the Office holder do
not die.
Each year heretofore the adult males
have been called together by the road
master for the purpose OF sampling
each others tobacco and making mud
pies along the highways at 81 per day.
The bed of the road is generally
sunken several feet below the level of
the sra and then plowed up and made
mellow, like an onion bed.
Where it is desired to defect q
stream of rain accross the roadbed on
q side hill, instead of building q cul-
vert, the Tar heel civil engineer and
scientist constructs soft, wet diagonal
ridge or Golfer dam of red mud, which
resembles the neWmade grave of q
postmaster yet, alas, it is notl
The loss IN rolling stock here is easily
S38 per cent. for I have kept an &C
curate account Of it for three yerrs.
during which time nv wagon etc.
have been entirely renewed.
Landaus and victorias are not used
much here, but q hickory crotch like
an enlarged Wishboneis attached TO an