The Forrest City times., 1901-07-19
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
THE GOOD ROADS QUESTION.
No NccesSitt FOR Building Hard
Ronds, at Great Expense. EN-
cept in Limited Districts.

For several years | was an earnest
advocate or hard roads, and believed
that the best interests of the farmer
demanded them. but | have to IA con
siderable extent changed my mind.
For over year / have been watching
d 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 well satisfied that
# our common earth roads are prop
erly and thoroughly cared for--if
they are well built at the right tima
and repairs are made promptly-the
IS 70 necessity whatever for going 20
the enormous expense of building
hard roads except III limited districts.
in due time the trolley will come into
the west, as il already has into many
portions Of the east, and in most see
tons long hauls OF farm produce VIII
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 il is n0sense TO talk about building
them 1t would be far better to adopt
the methods of the road keeper"
mentioned above.
His district lies in a black-soil see
ton, where rain quickly converts soil
into mud. He has learned that where
orr i
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 we'll rounded and the ruts
filed by the use of the road-hone. As
soon after rain as the grade is dry
enough the hone is run over it ana
the surt5cc made perfectly smooth
At the edges IF bridges and culyerts,
where are often found ugly drop
offs and deep ruts when the roads
are not properly cared for, he dug
out the soil to a depth of about
eighteen inches and filled in with bro
ken brick and tile, covering them with
cinders, and there the road is as solid
Is rock. To place one man in charge
OF the roads of a township or district
would remove the burden and bother
Of read-tinl 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 tran they could save by
tinkering on the roads. The idea of
working road Tito fair condition
enc week and letting it go to ruin
the rest Of the year is utter foolish
ness. and the sooner a change is made
the better. The reading, thinking
farmer knows this, and he is patient
~ waiting for the leayen to work
among his neighbors. Agitation for
costly hard roads and great burden
of debt has served to intensity the
opposition to reasonable schemes for
road Improvement The best thing we
can do till the trolley comes, and after
it comes, is to adopt the "roadkeep-
ers' systcm-paY steady, slillful men
salary to build our roads in the
best manner with the material at
hand, and then keep them up the
wear round. If this is done we will
have, even in the blacksoil districts,
very good roads nine or ten months
Of the year, and they would be passa
bic the other two months, while the
cost would in the end be much less
than the present Cyerseer-poll-taX-
ybody-work fOolishness.-Fred
Glundy, in Farm and Fireside.