Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-09-28
MAKING GOOD ROADS
Business Men of Tama Join
With Farmers In Improv-
ing Public Highway
ARE FOLLOWING A GOOD PLAN
Tama Citizens Have Added $500 to the
$500 County Tax, and the City Fur
nishes the Dump Boards and Men to
Load Wagons, While the Farmers
Donate Their Labor.
Special to Times-Repuoiican.

Tama, Sept. 2S.-That the town Is
not independent of the country. or at
least the merchants of this town do not
think so, is shown by the joint action OF
the business men with the farmers in
making some good roads. Tama, lying
river, is on low ground and as there is
but one bridge whereby trade from the
south can get to town, the necessity
for a good road passable at all times
OF the year is felt keenly. Toledo, north
lust two and one-half miles, cuts Off
the trade from that direction, so IT
Tama gets her share of business 1t
must come from the south. The coun-
ty has graded up the road until 1T is
about fifteen feet above the level of the
ground surrounding. and now they are
putting a heavy coating of gravel over
the entire length of the grade. The
county tax for grades this year is So00
and the citizens of Tafna have added
$500 more, which provides a nice little
sum to fix UP two miles n a half of
road. They have divided the work
about as follows: The city furnishes
men to load the wagons, also the dump
boards which are used, and the farm
ers are donating their labor There Is
q gravel bed a short distance from the
road and the longest haul is about one
and a half miles. Any of these days
can he seen men from all over the
| rn1Intv SnIIfn--m6n come of them
| wealthy, on top of loads of sand work
ing to fit up the roads. Some come ten
miles to help and in all there are about
one hundred farmers who work from
one to six days each. hauling about
four loads each, altho n farmer Sat
urday hauled six. Last year they put
in over 1000 loads Of gravel at
an expense of 1915 on this same piece
of road. This year they will put in al
most double the amount of gravel. This
to the casual observer comes as nearly
solving the good roads problem as any
thing seen lately. At Montour some
years ago there must have been a
wave OF good roads fever. They tried
using crushed rock without grading up
fine roads any and driving over it a
few days ago during a wet spell down
under four or five niche of mud was
4 sound rock foundation. How much
better 1t would have baan to have fol-
lowed the plan used here to build up
so that the water can't stand on the
grade!
Today two OF the most prominent
stock feeders in the county returned
from Chicago, where they had been
with cattle. They made the trip going
by daylight, and say that there is the
best corn crop that Iowa has ever had;
that 1t will bring more dollars than
any previous ear. These men have
been over the c. & N. w. road a dozen
times a year for as many years and
ought to know whereof they speak.
lind a number of men around here who
show me fields that they say will run
seventy-five bushels to the acre. Most
of them have their seed picked. I was
struck with the difference in the APP
p~earance of two fields of corn with
nothing but an iron fence between
them, and Upon inquiring found the
same man owned them both. One was
small stalks and ears and looked sick
ly; the other was strong and vigorous,
with large ears that would
weigh a pound and a hals
10 two pounds. The ground was
the same, planted the same time and
tended by the same man. The only diff
ference was the seed. The good corn |
was from seed he shipped from Illinois;
the other he had picked his seed from
the same field for ten years. The rea-
son he sent for seed to Illinois was
because he was afraid 1t was running |
out. The comparison shows his fears
were well founded.
While Iowa is a great cattle. hog and
corr state it would seem as tho she
might find rank as a reach cropping
country. A great man farmers In and
around Tama county are raising
peaches. and the recent warm weather
has ripened them well. / was in a
peach orchard Saturday and picked
ripe peaches from the tree and for color
and flavor they beat anything I ever
tasted, and there were millions of them.
This particular farmer had props un-
der the limbs to keep the fruit from
breaking the limbs off.
GEORGE F. THAYER.
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