Arizona republican., 1899-03-06
REPAIRING ROADS.
i Lesson That Has Yet to Be Learned
 by Many Farmers.

by Many Farmers.
 Plans for improving the roads should be made early in the season. Too often every thought of doing work on the roads is delayed till after harvest, and
 worse still till the fall months. With out a doubt the sooner the work is done the better. Why should it be necessary to drive over holes, ruts and washes made by one winter until another win ter is nearly at hand before they are repaired?
 Were 1t rot that some of us are too afraid of doing little. generous work it would not be so hard to take our shovel and stop washes, open ditches or fiji holes on the road few yards from oU" door. T. is Gppal ert that few minutes CT a few hours of this work done at the night time will save days of work later. and the right time is during the wet and thaWing period of spring. when our services are not especially occupied. It is rot maintained that the era of good roads is to be brought about in this way, but when one secs that days of work can be saved ly little timely at tcntion, and especially when the work should kc done in sight of his fresidc, he is not q little selfish who refuses to do the same because the benefit may eN- tend to others as well as himself.
 It need not surprise the reader if the one who cries the loudest for good roads and who complains the longest about high taxes is the last one to do d little unpaid work on that part of the public road which he travels every day. l am not harsh, but 1t does not seem out of place to agitate the need of a little self-help along this line.
 One lesson yet to be learned by many is the importance of taking care of q road. In nearly every neighborhood there are some farmers who manage to do a good deal of hauling every spring at the time when the roads are in the most viscid state of the year. As is to be expected, a big load is hard to pull, and since there is no thought of load ing lighter the most natural thing to do is to hitch on four horses and take the wagon right along. As would be expected, such team has about the same effect upon soft road as the same number of horses hitchcd to q T!ow and throwing up furrow at each side of the track. Such a farmer1 will explain to you that there is no law to prevent him from doing so, that the roads are for public use, and that it is the best way he ever tried for tough ening his horses for spring blowing. | There ought to be a law specifying such | destruction q misdemeanor, but shame | on the farmer who must be thus re strained from tearing up the highways | by legal cnaction.
 Let it be remembered that success in | road improvement lies most in making the very best use of the means at ones | command. Not every section has gravel | and stone in abundance, and without | these there can be no bikes. But even where these materials are scarce it | must be admitted that such is often wasted by lack of thought and neglect. Because gravel and macadaInizing ma terial can be secured in but limited 1 quantities it is not thought necessary to properly prepare the grade before lay ing the road material. Nine times out of ten farmers who haul out only a dozen loads of gravel per year will use them to fill mud holes. They are con yinced that this is the best material for the purpose that they can find. But what a waste! Before a year these isolated loads will have gone into the