The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-05-06
OrrespOndenCe
-wpRov1Ne OUR COUNTRY ROADS.

-s,ondence Of The Progressive Farmer.
Nnoh is being said through the
.o1nmns of your most excellent paper
obout public roads, and the next
legislature will probably enact some
.ort of laws for their betterment. A
long step toward putting u roads
:, GOOD condition will have been
.sken if the Legislature does but one
thing, namely, put an end to the zig
,so and Indifferent manner of taking
earth from lands lying along the
rosds 30 fill up holes and ruts, and
reouire the earth 60 be taken from
ditohes, neatly out and running
n~srsllel with the center of the road
NOT more than seven feet from cen
tar, inside measurement, nor more
than ten feet outside measurement,
cutting them long enough to insure
carrying off the water so the streams
or low places; and then require the
land owners TO out ditohes of sufh-
oent length and fall TO carry the
water from the roadbed.
DRAINAGE Is MOST IMPORTANT.
For 1t matters not what plan is
adopted or what material is used in
their construction, the first step is
necessarily drainage &; and the writer
il of the opinion that if this one re-
ouirement is carried out fully, so
much good would result from il as
to render it unnecessary in many
sections TO do anything more. 1
never saw a bad road in my life
where water does not accumulate.
CASE IN POINT.
As an instance al TO what be
accomplished in this way, I will state
that when the W. g W. Railr DAD
Company moved it's depot from old
Juyner, in Wilson County, TO it's
present. site, Elm City, the new road
Isding east from the town a
through a marshy district for sev-
Sral hundred yards, as difficult q
place TO make rosdbed as can be
found in almost any place but tho
citizens of the town, aided by the
road hands and the country people
of the neighborhood, out ditches on
either side of the road, making COCA
sional outs across the road, putting
bridges over these, and then quitting
ditches across the adjoining lands TO
garry of the water from the road
until the entire roadbed was dry.
The ditch. bank was then leveled
!own in the road, ~elevating it sew
aral inches above the lands on either
side, and a prettier, finer roadbed
could hardly be found anywhere and
while the writer has not seen it in
fifteen years, he has not the slight
est doubt about its good condition at
the present time. Neither did it
cost any more than would have re.
suited from the slipshod methods of
the our usually pursued, say moth
ing of the jolts, jars, and other an.
noyanoes incident TO roads improp-
erly built.
POOR ROADS AND POOR FARMING.
If people from other sections
should judge the farming done by
those who work the roads by the
methods there employed, they could
not wonder as the dilapidated and
rUn down condition of many of our
farms. The only right way TO do
any kind of work is TO do it we'll,
and there is so much in the force of
habit that when once formed it
shows itself in everything and this
accounts in a large measure for the
bad condition of our roads. The
same thoughtlessness which charao-
terizes work at home necessarily
crops out on the roads Doubtless
much of it is the fault of overseers,
resulting from the same cause. 1t
Is sheer folly to dig out a hole here
and there, making no outlet for the
water, but leaving it there to spread
out and soften the road and thereby
render worthless the little work
already done.
WIN. A. BARBREY.
Sampson Co., N. G.