Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1901-08-09
FARMER PLANTER.
THE GOOD ROADS QUESTION.
No Necessity for Building Hard
Roads, at Great Expense, Ex-
cept in Limited Districts.

For several years | was an earnest
advocate of hard roads, and believed
that the best interests of the farmer
demanded them, but ! have to con-
siderable extent changed my mind.
For over year have been watching
real up to.date "road-keeper" care
for about eight miles of common
black-carth road, and to say he has
done good work would be putting it
mildly. / am now we'll satisfied that
If our common earth roads are prop
erly and thoroughly cared for If
they are well built at the right time
and repairs are made promptly-there
is 10 necessity whatever for going 10
the enormous expense of building
hard roads except iii limited districts,
In due time the trolley will come into
the west, as it already has into many
portions of the east, and in most Sec
tons long hauls of farm produce will
soon be thing of the past. Where
the materials for making hard roads
are cheap and near by they can be
built at reasonable cost; but when
they are distant and must be freight
ed it is nosense to talk about building
them. 1t would be far better to adopt
the methods of the "road-keeper -
mentioned above.
His district lies in black-sol see
ton, where rain quickly converts soil
into mud. He has learned that where
the grade is tile-drained and round
ed so that the water quickly flows off,
the road is easily kept in good condi-
ton. The first thing done was to pro-
vide good drainage after that to keep
the grade well rounded and the ruts
filled by the use of the road-hone. AS
soon after n rain as the grade is dry
enough the hone is run over it and
the surface made perfectly smooth.
AT the edges of bridges and culverts,
where are often found ugly drop
OFFS and deep ruts when the roads
are not properly cared for, he dug
out the soil to depth of about
eighteen inches and filled in with bro
ken brick and tile, covering them with
cindcrs, and there the road is as solid
as rock. To place one man in charge
of the roads of township or district
would remove the burden and bother
of roadtinl ering oil the farmers, and
most of them could, by attending 10
their crops at the season when road
work should be done, make many
times mere than they could save by
tinkering on the roads. The idea OF
working road into fair condition
one week and letting it go to ruin
the rest Of the year is utter foolish
ness, and the sooner change is made
the better. The reading, thinking
farmer knows this, and he is patient.
ly waiting for the leaven to work
among his neighbors. Agitation for
costly hard roads and a great burden
of debt has served to intensity the
opposition to reasonable schemes foi
road improvement The best thing W,
can do till the trolley comes, and after
il comes, is 10 adopt the 'road-keep
ers" system-pay steady, sliillful mer
a salary to build our roads in the
best manner with the material Al
hand, and then keep them up The
year round. If this is done we will
have, even in the black-soil districts
very good roads nine or ten months
of the year, and they would be passa
BILE the other two months, while tn,
cost would in the end be much less
than the present overscer-poll-tax
everybody-work foolishness.-Fret
Grundy, in Farm and Fireside.