Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-12-17

rle present at the time announced for
the opening of the lecture, including
selectmen, street commissioners and
others from various sections of the
county, who were interested in the sub
1ect Of road building.
The lectures by Mr.. King in this
state are held under the auspices OF
the State highway department and Mr..
King was introduced by State High
way Commissioner Paul d. Sargent
Mr. King after a few preliminary re-
marks caught the interest of his ar-
dience by asking how many present
knew what the three characteristics OF
a perfect earth road were. He stated
that three characteristics must be pres
ent in a good earth road. and no one
of them could he taken away and the
road be good Il do not believe" said
he, that you have here at the present
time or have had for 90 years half
mile of earth road combining these
three essentials at the same time. The
road must be oval. hard and smooth.
! might as well name these qualities III
one order as the ether, it makes no diff
ference which is put first. if any one
is absent the road is failure as far as
perfecton is concerned" Continuing he
said in substance:
by the old system it has been en-
tirely too expensive an operation 10
maintain these three essentials, no:
has the read machine been capable OF
producing these characteristics in their
most satisfactory form, no matter how
much it is used. but the King drag.
cheap in itself and inexpensive and
simple in operation, brings about this
condition of the road so easily and nat
urally that the man who does the work
is amazed at his success and astOnish
ed that this method has not been in
vogue before The manner Of build
ing the drag has been explained al
considerable length in print. 1t should
be made very light, I have been told
that there are drags in use in your
neighboring town of Sidney to which
are hitched four and six horses. These
are too heavy and they overshoot the
mark Although in many respects they
are be tier than the old road machine.
still they, like the road machine re-
move altogether too much at once. The
secret of the best success with the
King drag is to keep a space of road
| in sucn condition that the next ram
will all run off. This means the use of
the drag after every rain or wet spell
| the moving Of a little earth often.
Law it down as q law that whenever
road machine places so much earth or
any other kind Of road material in the
center of the highway that the people
avoid it and drive to one side of the
centre and the man who tries to bulld
a road in that way has made serious
mistake. The drag should be strong
of course but very light. given suffi-
cient strength. the lighter the better.
Bear i'm mind that a light drag can be
MAZE heavier by weighing 1t. but by nc
method can a heavy drag be made
light.
"The drag should be light enough so
that an ordinary farm team will movs
it easily with the driver riding on the
drag. This is not theoretical. 1t is q
fact without Aoit of theory about it.
This method Of road building l worked
out, got results and then began to
search for theories that would fit the
case. The facts were developed first
and the theories afterwards. Z am
talking only of what | have done my
self and what others have done. L
have OH record q very remarkable in
stance in your own State of what can
be lone by careful and proper use Of
the Kink drag F. f. Sanford of STAN
dish. Cum noerland county. built his first
drag in April Io'6. He put ii 7" w.;
on a piece of highway. which he de-
scribed as being: 'the last stretch or
road in Cunbe rland county to dry UP