The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1905-07-21
GOOD ROADS WITHOUT STONE.
Simple Method Employed BY
Western Farmers.-Split-
Loo Drdq,
Log Drag.


recent date contains an article by D.
Ward King on the road question, which
tells how, by the employment of the
simplest of devises and at practically no
expense, he has been able to secure a
good dirt road. Mr.. King is the origin
ator of what is known as the "Split-Log
Drag" and is no theorist but practical
farmer, who has demonstrated the sue
cess of the simple methods employed by
actual results. His work has attracted so
much attention that the Northwestern
Railroad Company has helped in the
campaign of education by running a
''dirt road special" along its line that the
farmers may have the benefit of practical
demonstrations as object lessons. The
split-log drag method is so simple, and
the results so good, that there is no
reason why some of our practical and
progressive farmers of upper Cecil, who
know what bad roads are, should not
give it trial, as it will work as well here
as it has in Missouri, the home of Mr..
King. The following extracts from the
article may prove of interest 10 our
readers and be the means of someone
giving the drag trial on his road
s.There is something startling" says Mr.. King
ain the statement that drag made of split log
and costing only the price of knife is the
implement that is going to revolutionize the
wagon roads of this country and save many mill
lions of dollars to the rural population of the
United States-yet make this statement and put
upon it all the emphasis Of which am capable.
Downright absurd" do you exclaim have
had hundreds of farmers greet with jeers less
sweeping statement of the case-and then go
home and prove to themselves its absolute correct
ness. Have you any idea of what it would mean
to the people of the United States to change the
bad wagon roads of the country into good roads?
Such revolution in transportation would climb
so high into figures that the sum total would be
absolutely startling and almost beyond compre-
hension.
1t is impossible to express in figures even the
most general estimate of the value of such a
revolution in road-making as must result from the
general use of this new and 'absurdly simple
method. However, it is well to keep in mind the
fact that in almost all States the mileage of COM
mon dirt roads is many times double that OF
macadamized or other expensive roads intended
to be permanent.
What has already been accomplished, so far as
the spread of the movement is concerned, may be
put in a few words: 1t has been backed and push
ed by the Missouri Board of Agriculture; one
railroad, the Northwestern, has sent out Good
Roads Special for the purpose of evangelizing
the farmers of its territory; other roads are eager
to install the same kind of broad gauge. public
spirited campaign; thousands of miles of wagon
roads have been permanently reclaimed from bad
to good, and hundreds of meetings have been he Id
in the nine States In which this gospel has been
disseminated by means of practical demon
stration.
Eight years ago I was devoting almost my
entire time to my farm, three miles north from
the little town of Maitland, Missouri. My in
terests demanded frequent travel over the road
between my farmhouse and the village. and
always felt keen resentment when bad roads
male 1t difficult or impossible to drive to town-a
state of things that was altogether too frequent.
reached the conviction that it was the fate of
the farmer to spend $3.50 to $4,000 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.
began to investigate and experiment in an
irregular sort of way 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.
The horses were attached at such point Of the
wire as to give the drag slant of about fortyfve
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 soak.
ing rain and the earth was in plastic condition
1 had driven this drag but few rods when was
fully aware that it was serving at least the initial
purpose for which it was intended-that of level
ing down the wheel ruts and pushing the surplus
dirt into the center of the road.
At INV neiphbor's gate, toward town, 1 turned
around and took the other side OF the road back
10 INV home The result was simply astonishing
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