Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1906-01-18
FARMERS NEED
GOOD ROADS
Good Information from a Govern.
ment Bulletin Abont How j..
They are Built.

on the building of good roads, from
which we clip.
1.-THE road that will best suit the
needs of the farmer, in the first place,
must not be too costly; and, in the
second place, must be of the very
best kind, for farmers should be able
to do their heavy hauling over them
when their fields are too wet to work
and their teams would otherwise be
idle
The best road for the farmers, all
things being considered, is a solid,
Well-built stone road, SO narrow as
to be only single track, but having
a firm earth road on one or both sides.
Where the traffic is not very extensive
the purposes of good roads are bet
ter served by narrow tracks than by
wide ones, while many of the objec-
tionable features of wide tracks are
removed, the initial cost of construc-
ton is cut down one-half or more,
and the charges for repair reduced in
proportion.
The travelled way should never be
repaired by the use of plows or
scraper. The pillow breaks up the COM
pact surface which age and traffic
has made tolerable. Earth roads can
be rapidly repaired by judicious use
of road machines and road rollers.
The road machine places the materi-
al where it is most needed, and the
roller compacts and keeps it there.
The labor-saving machinery now
manufactured for road building is
just as etfectual and necessary as the
modern mower, self-binder, and
thresher. Road graders and rollers
are the modern Inventions necessary
TO permanent and economical con-
StructiOn. Two men with two teams
can build more road in one day with
a grader and roller than fifty men can
with picks and shovels, and do it
more uniformly and thoroughly.
Doubtless the best way to keep an
earth road, or any road for that mat
ter, in repair is by the use of wide
tires on all wagons carrying heavy
burdens. Water and narrow tires aid
each other in destroying streets, mac
adam, gravel, and earth roads, Mar
row tires are also among the most
destructive agents to the fields, pas
lures, and meadows of farms, while
on the other hand wide tires are
rOad-makers; they roll and harden
the surface, and every loaded wagon
becomes in effect road roller. Moth
ing SO much tends to the improving
of road as the continued rolling of
it's surface.
Repairs on earth roads should be
attended to particularly in the spring
of the year, but the great mistake of
letting all the repairs go until that
time should not be made. The great
want of the country road is daily
care and the sooner. we do away with
the system of ''working out'' our
road taxes, and pay such taxes in
money, the sooner will it be possible
to build improved roads and to hire
experts to keep them constantly in
good repair. Roads could then secure
attention when such attention is
most needed. If they are repaired
only annually or semiannually they
are seldom in good condition, but
when they are given daily or weekly
care they are most always in good
condition, and, moreover, the second
method costs far less than the first.
A portion of all levy tax money raised
for road purposes should be used in
buying improved road machinery, and
in-constructing each year few miles
of"improved roads.
Any strong, fibrous substance, and
especially one which holds moisture.
such as the refuse of sugar cane or
sorghum, and even common straw.
flax, or swamp grass, will be useful.
Tan bark is Of some service, and
wood tibber in any form is excellent.
The best is the fbrous sawdust made
in saving shingles by those machines
which cut lengthwise of the fiber in
to the side of the block. Sawdust is
first spread on the road from s to 10
inches deep, and is covered wit n sand
to protect the road aaginst fire light
ed from pipes or cigars carelesslv
thrown or emptied on the roadbed.
The sand also keeps the sawdust
damp. The dust and sand soon be-
come hard and packed, and the
wheels of the heaviest wagons make
but little impression upon the sur-
face. The roadbed appears to be AL
most as solid as a plank road. but, is
much easier for the teams. The road
prepared in this manner will remain
good for four or five years and will
then require renewing in some parts
The ordinary lumber sawdust would
not be so good. of cOurSo b,,+ ;f