The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1905-07-14

| nan miles OF urag ROADS, ana most
important of all, perhaps, the
public sentiment of scores of com
munities has been stirred to self
respecting hopefulness and energy
by this new gospel of good roads
without money
Eight years ago was devot-
ing almost my entire time to my
farm, three miles north from the
little town of Maitland, Missouri.
My interests demanded frequent
travel over the road between my
farmhouse and the village, and |
always felt a keen resentment
when bad roads made it difficult OF
impossible to drive to tOwn-a
state of things that was altogether
too frequent.
ga little investigation and ex.
perience demonstrated to me that
this was by no means the result
OF Indifference or inactivity on the
part of our road commissioners.
Then | reached the conviction
that it was the fate of the farmer
to spend 81, 500 to $4,000 a mile
for macadamized road or else
travel in the mud in all periods of
continued wet weather-which is
to say very large proportion of
the year This conviction is
almost universal among farmers
who have really wrestled with the
road problem and know from ex.
perience its difficulties.
"HOwever, this state Of doubt
and Encouragement did not long
continue, and | began to investi-
gate and experiment in an irregu-
lar sort of way. Acting under
this persistent impulse to expert
mcnt, | one day hitched my team
to drag made of frost spoiled
wooden pump stock and an old
oak post, held parallel to each
other by three pieces of fence
boards about three feet long.
Smooth wire served in place of a
chain, and strip of plank laid
between the post and the pump
stock gave me a rough platform
upon which to stand.
1.-The horses were attached at
such a point of the wire as to give
the drag a slant of about forty five
degrees in the direction required
to force the earth that it would
gather from the side of the road
up into the centre. We had just
had soaking rain and the earth
was in a plastic condition. | had
driven this drag but a few rods
when was fully aware that it was
serving at least the initial purpose
for which it was intended-that
of leveling down the wheel rut
and pushing the surplus dirt into
the centre of the road.
Sat my neighbors's gate, to
ward town, | turned around and
took the other side of the road
back to my home. The result was
simply astonishing. More rain
fell upon this road, but it ran off
like water from a ducks back
From that time forward, after
every rain or wet spell, | dragged
the half mile of the road covered
by my original experiment.
SAT the end of three months
the road was better than when it
had been dragged for three weeks,
and at the end of three years it
was immensely improved over it's
condition at the end of the first
years work. | studied the result
of each step in my experiment and
finally learned that there elements
are required to make perfect
earth road and that the lack of
any one of them is fatal to the re.
suit. To be perfect an earth road
must be at one and the same time
oval, hard and smooth. All of
these indispensables are acquired
by the use Of the split log drag in
any soil that l have ever come in
contact with-and | have worked
in the various kinds of clay soil,
in the gumbo of the swampy low
lands and in the black mud of the
prairies.
"Observation of my experiment
taught met that two weeks of rain
would not put this bit Of road in
bad condition at time when the
highway at either end of it was
passable for wagon. Ofcourse.
it was plain that the reason the
road was not bad was that there
was no mud in it. But why mud
would not collect in it was not
clear to me until | was taught my
lesson by the very humble means
of the hog wallow One day |
CHANGED to notice that water was
standing in one of these wallows
long after the ground all about it
had become dry. Probably | had
many times before observed this
fact, but not until now had it oc-
CURED to me to inquire into its
cause. Examining the edges OF
the wallow, was impressed with
the fact that it was almost as hard
as piece of earthenware. Clear
ly this was because the wallowing