The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1905-07-27

| NX xV used by MI. hlhS III IL
GxxX4 'trating his lectures. i'll
connection with the North
western good roads train, OH the SUD-
ject of how to make good roads out
of lust dirt. or any other kind of
dirt except sand. Those drass are
sometimes made after the arrival OF
the car with the split log, sometimes
from plank of either hard or soft
wood. Anybody can make the drag.
and the boy is likely to make better
drag than his father.
The question we discuss now is def
initely and specifically how to use 1t.
Make your drag at once so it Will be
ready. After the first rain hitch on to
YOUR drag so as to give it an angle
of about forty-tive degrees and go
down one wheel track. The best way
is to 20 from your own front gate to
the next neighbor's front gate on the
way to town, then turn around and
come back on the other track, smooth
ing down the rough places, filling up
the ruts, and throwing little dirt to
the centre of the road. 1t is bette,
to have the ground quite muddy and
\ slushy the first time. Two horses
\may not be able to pull the drag If it
Us a heavy one, 50 IL necessary, put on
the four-horse evener and hitch up
four.) Then stop. You will have made
smooth passageway some twelve or
fourteen feet wide, little higher ia
the middle than at the sides. which
will shed water fairly we'll. Then when
it dries off partially. put on your two
horses and go over it again perhaps
that afternoon or the next day-thcn
wait until after the next rain, and
when it is drying off IA little expert
ence will show you just when it IS
right do it again. Passing teams
in the meantime will have puddled the
earth and made it so that it is par
TALLY impervious to water. Teams
will not be obliged for comfort to fol-
for them to follow and you will find
that they will beat down and compact
the whole of this twelve or fourteen
eject. Then wait until after the next
rain, and do it again, always throw
ing little dirt to the middle Of the
road and gradually grading it up and
filing up any holes or other uneven
ness.
This Is very simple methodist
simple that you will not believe in it
until you try it, You will wonder that
you did not think Of this long ago; that
it never occurred to you that the
tougher the mud the better the road
it will make. If you want to get your
road little wider. wait until the next
rain and plow very shallow furrow
down. one side and up the other, then
take your drag and move this into the
middle of the road and still further
build it up.
Now, If every reader Of Wallace's
Farmer will make the drag and go at
it as above stated. he will do more
toward making good roads in the
neighborhood than has been done by
the road supervisors in the last ten
years, and do it with very little eX-
pense. Is it not worth while taking
all this trouble to have piece Of
good road in front of your farm? Is
it not worth while to set an example
to your neighbors between you and
town so that they will be ashamed OF
themselves if they do not follow it.
and thus have good roads to town
during the greater portion Of the year?
\ road treated in this way will shed
water off into the ditch. Water al
centre of the earth, and finds it is Il
good deal easier to slide off into the
ditch than it is to get down through,
especially through puddled and almost
waterproof earth.
1t is then up to you to get it out Of
the ditch. This can be done only by
drainage, either natural or artificial
\ Bear in mind that the drag will not
take water out of the ditch. Bear in
mind that it will not work on road
bed of pure sand because sand will not
stick together If, however. you can
drag a good soil out Of the ditch and
mix it with the sand. it will make a
very decent road. Neither will the
drag work in a mire hole where water
stands during the summer season.
You will have culvert for that, or
otherwise drain it out.
Do not understand us to say that
this drag is paneaca for all the ills
Of bad roads. 1t will simply make,
| il properly used, good road out of a
very bad earth road. A good road
must be hard and smooth and oval
all three at the same time. TIE drag
will make it smooth and in time make
it oval. The tramping Of the horses
on earth which has any considerable
percentage Of clay in it will in time
make il. hard.
Bear in mind further that you can
not make first class road by drag
ging the first time. the second time,
nor the third. 1t will, however, make
it little better every time. 1t will
be better the second time than the
first, the fifth than the second. and
the tenth than the fifth.-Wallace's
Farmer. i;.Is
Embalming Perfector Dead.
~ -