The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1906-10-04
GOOD ROADS
WITHOUT MONEY
How to Have Good Roads with
out Money or Road Law

The fullowing article, taken from the
Saturday Evening Post, will be of in
terest TO the farmers and citizens o+
Henderson County, where the roads
have Disappeared:
There is something startling in the
statement that drag made of split
log and costing only the price of q
pocket-knife is the implement that il
going TO revolutionize the wagon roads
of this country and save many millions
of dollars to the rural population of the
United States-yet make this state
ment and put upon it all the emphasis
of which am capable.
So much by way of suggesting the
size of the problem which the split-log
drag has come to solve. What has al
ready been accomplished, so far as the
spread OF the movement is concerned,
may be put in few words: 1t has been
backed and pushed 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 terri
tory; 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 hun
dreds of meetings have been held in the
nine states la which this gospel has
been discern mated by means of practical
demonatration. At these meetings
thousandsof persons have pledged them
selves to make and TO use q split-log
drag; hundreds OF newspapers have
taken up this movement, giving 10 gen
erous space and a square deal; hund-
reds, if not thousands, of dollars have
been raised and offered in prizes for
the best miles or half-miles of drag
roads, and most important of all, per-
hsps, the public sentiment of scores of
communities has been stirred to self
respecting hopefulness and energy by
this new gospel of good roads without
money"
Eight years ago was devoting almost
my entire time to my farm, three miles
north from the little town of Maitland,
Missouri. My interests demanded fre
quent travel over the road between my
farmhouse and the village, and l al
ways felt keen resentment when bad
roads made 1t difficult or impossible to
drive to town. state of things that was
altogether too frequent.
A little investigation and experience
demonstrated to me that this was by no
means the result of Indifference or in
activity on the part of our road COM
missioners. Then reached the con-
viction that it was the fate of the farm
er to spend $500 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. This convic-
tiOn is almost universal among farmers
who have really wrestled with the road
problem and know from experience it's
difficulties.
However, this state of doubt and dis
couragement did not long continue, and
began to investigate and experiment
in an irregular sort of way. Acting
under this persistent impulse to expert
ment, one day hitched my team to a
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 q
point OF the wire as to give the drag a
slant of about forty-ive degrees in the
direction required tc force the earth
that it would gather from the side OF
the road up into the centre. We had
just had a soaking rain and the earth
was in plastic condition. had driven
this drag but few rods when / was
fully aware that 1t was serving at least
the initial purpose for which it was in
tended-that OF levellng down the
wheel rut and and pushing the surplus
dirt into the centre of the road.
AT my neighbours gate, toward town,
turned around and took the other side
OF the road back to my home. The re-
suit was simply astonishing. More rain
fell upon this road, but it iran off like
water from ducks back" From that
time forward, after every rain or wet
spell, / dragged the half-mile of the
road covered by my original expert
ment.
At the end of three months the road
was better than whan IL had been