St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-06-17

FARMER RANDPlANTER.
OUR COUNTRY ROADS.

rANMEN AND fl.AN EN
OUR COUNTRY ROADS.
The TRUE Remedy for the PreseA
Unsatisfactory Dirt Roads is
Good Macadam.
The average country road, MS at pres
! cnt maintained and repaired. is a con
slant source of unnecessary expense II
taxpayers and an almost constant
veAation to travellers. AT its best tht
dirt road is good for onlya few month";
in the year, and those months the time
VIXEN the farmer-the man most inter
ested in good country roads-is using
his horses on the farm. In the fall
winter, and early spring, when the
great bulk of teaming is to be done
the roads are in bad shape, except
when kind Providence sends snow
that makes good sleddin.'" Bad roads
mean small loads, and small loads
mean to the farmer proportionately
small profits. 1 know many farms
where the saving in time from hauling
lnIser loads, the saving in wear and
tear of horsefiesh, wagons and harness
would over and over again pay for the
increased initial cost of a good maca-
dam road. Made of the oest dirt OBJ
tianable. applied under intelligent
supervision. and kept in order with
proper road-making tools, the dirt road
is never entirely satisfactory. What
can be expected of the quality of roads
made of the material mcst easily OBJ
taiEed, applied by men ignorant of the
FIRST principales of road making, work
ing without proper tools. and super
yised by men equally ignorant, or not
at all? The true remedy Cor poor dirt
roads is good macadam. But with no
greater expenditure of money than
now. the present road might be vastly
improved. The road tag should be
paid in cash. The system of loafing
cut the tax, under the pretense Of
working the roads, "sholld be abol-
ished. This money should be expend-
ed under the immediate supervision Of
one man for each township, selected
fer knowledge of road making, and
put under bonds for the faithful per-
formance of his duties. This would
introduce into the system the element
Of responsibility, which il sadly lack
ing at present. and to the lack of which
are due many of the abuses of the pres
ent methods. One man, hiring his la
boz where he pleased, and paying cash
for q days work, would get consider
ably more done for the money than
dozen or Is roadmasters working out
the tax in conjunction with their
ne:ghbors and fellow farmers.
Proper tools should be provided to
work with. Roadscrapers are almost
unknown in many country dictricts,
anG plows and shovels are the tools
most commonly used. Very good
road scrapers can be bought for only
two or three times the cost of a good
riow, and two men. two horses, and a
roac scraper will do the work of an
epual number of horses and ten men,
with plows and shovels, and do it bet
ter. Only the best obtainable mater
ials should be used in repairing the
roads, gravel, when possible, and
when not, the dirt most nearly ap-
preaching it in quality. The use Of
gutter wash" sods, and stones larger
thar two inches in diameter, should
be forbidden. l have seen roads
''nIended" with sods, that were for
weeks impossible at any gait faster
tnan q walk, and l have seen holes III
tie road bed filled with large stones
that were q nuisance for years.
The roads should be worked at prop
er times. The need of the dirt road is
little repairs often made. The common
practice is to do almost all the work
just after corn planting" This is
wrong for two reasons; it is too late |
for the best results, and too much is
done at one time. Six inches of dirt or
gravel will make q far better road If |
put on in layers OF, say two inches at
intervals of a month or SO, than will |
the entire quantity applied at once.
Just as soon as the roads are settled in |
the spring, and before they have he
come dry and hard, the scraper should |
be put to work leveling and filling the
ruts that were worn during the VIM
ter, and slightly rounding the roadbed |
the center. The ground being |
still moist, and not compact, as it is at |
the usual time of doing this, the work |
can be done more easily and rapidly |
and the road will pack better. Later a
light coat of earth or gravel should be
applied. to be followed by another /
when the first becomes packed hard.
and this in turn by third if possible.
Lastly, in the fall the entire road /
should be gone over 70 see that all gut
tcrs and bridges are free, that the road
may not be washed out by winter
and spring rains. All mud
holes, of course, should be filled
promptly at all times, SO that no water
stones should be removed at least once
4 month. The usual time for cutting
brush along roads, August, seems
right, but some reform is needed in
the way of doing it. The brush should
be cut close down to the ground, and
not, rs often is the case, cut q foot or
more above it, leaving long unsightly
stubs to sprout the ensuing spring. 1t
should Ike piled at once, and burned
when sufficiently dry. Under the pres
ent system 1 have seen brush cut, left
Is cut. the next years growth cut over
top of that, and the resulting tangle
the third year.
With some such sytem as this l
ave sketched, the application to the
,oad work of the business rules which
govern every progressive farmer in the
conduct of his farm, with the work
lone under the supervision of re-
sponsible man, done at the proper
ines, instead of whenever convenient,
With the proper tools and with prop
n quality of earth, by men who were
compelled 10 give days work for
lays pay, the dirt road could be made
Tot good. but vastly better than it is.
But the dirt road is a costly one to re-
'car. Its only redeeming feature is its
initial cheapness, and in
he long run repairs even this MP.
'ountry communities are apt to coiu-