Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-10-13
ROADMAKlNG
Missouri Farmers Invention May Rsvo-
Iutionize Building of American
Highways,


A special from Kansas City to the
| New York Herald last Saturday says
Necessity was the mother of the split log
drag, contrivance that promises to adj
vance American highways toward par
with those of Europe.
The father of the split log drag was a
slave to a condition. Every day that
bad roads existed between the farm of
ID. Ward King and the railroad station
three miles away, it meant loss of money
to him. 1t took longer to haul load of
hogs or a load of corn or a load of wheat
over that bad road than it would have
taken to haul it over good roads. Time
meant money to the farmer.
A haul of that kind meant that his
teams were cut down in flesh and worn
out sooner than they should have been.
! 1t meant wear and tear on his wagons
and vehicles. Every time d. Ward King
drove to town he thought the matter
over. AS he thought he became CON
WINGED at first that the only way out was
for the farmers to macadamze their
roads. This would cost 81 500 to $4,000
a mile according to conditions. 1t was
either that or travel in the mud, he
decided.
He came to the conclusion, as he
thought the matter over, that the
farmers could better afford the immense
cost of macadam than to continue to
drive in the mud. A few years would
save the cost for them.
But, convin ced as he was of the neces-
sity and the economy of such pro-
ceeding, the farmer realized that it
would take a long time to convince the
average farmer that it would be a good
investment to pay 81 500 to $4,000 mile
! for macadam roads between his farm
and the town. And so D. Ward Kings
team continued to wear themselves out
and waste their time and the time of his
drivers over the muddy roads between
his farm and Maitland.
Necessity pressed closer to his door.
And from faint suggestion King worked
out simple, inexpensive continuance
called the split log drag.
After he had become convinced that
some method cheaper than macadamiz-
ing must be offered before the farmers
would take it up-and unless the move
ment were general it would be useless
King experimental in road making.
Finally, one day. he patched together
the stock of an old wooden pump and an
oak post, parallel, one behind the other,
and held together by boards. To this he
fastened piece of smooth fence wire
and hitched team to it. A board was
laid across the pieces which held the
pump stock and the post together and
thus platform was formed wherein the
driver could stand and add his weight to
that of the drag. His first idea was that
this contrivance would dag the rough
portions of the road down and fill the
ruts formed by the passage of wagons.
Tie dragged the road as far as the gate
of his first neighbor toward town and
then turned back to his own home. He
kept this up-dragging the road to and
from his neighbors gate-for three years
before he had single convert He was
laughed at and ridculed whats D.
Ward King up to now;' his neighbors
asked and laughed.
But Colonel G. w. Waters, secretary
, of the Missouri Good Roads Association
after looking upon the results of Mr.
Kings three years work between hi.
gate and his neighbours, said:-''If the
Road Commissioners of Missouri couC
stand here and see what | can see, the
result would be worth hundred thous
and dollars year to this common
wealth."
J The road was oval, hard and smooth
There were no ruts, no rough places, NJ
muddy spots, no holes. Rain falling OF
it only served to harden it. Driven
reaching it at night remarked the diff
ference. The bed had cement-liki
solidity that defied rain and refused t.
be turned into mud And after onl,
three years of work with an implemen
made from material lying at waste il
the farm yard.
Representative David A. de Almond
good roads advocate, rode over piec
of this road and wrote to Mr.. King:-
81 have experienced the magic in
d fiuence of the Split Log Drag. l ca
J, determine almost to an inch where tn
!. drag began
4 Other men have endorsed this contriy
ance. Thous 'nds of meetings for pun
. poses of education and demonstrate
}. have been held in nine States in whic
the gospel of the Split Log Drag has bee
IS carried.
The Missouri Board of Agriculture hf
\ taken up the subject and gives tn
method its apDrOyal Ii has been az