Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-04-17
ROAD DRAGGING COST
Why King System Is Cheapest
as Well as Best.
1T BECOMES MERELY A CH0RE

BY Quitting a Little Earlier a Farmer
Can Easily Renew His Boulevard.
Proof of Winter Dragsing's Value.
Comparison of Cost.
copyright. 1907, by D. Ward Kingl
The cost Of putting the King system
in operation is a matter which must
have consideration. Cost always is
important
When one first hears about road
dragging he feels certain a mistake or
an exaggeration is somewhere snugly
concealed, and an active brain spends
a certain period searching for its hid
ing place. Convinced at last of the
drags achievements as wonder
worker, the same brain asks, What
is the expense?" and again is skeptical
when the answer comes, 1.-THE cost OF
the new system is many times less
than the cost Of the old system"
For the farmer who drags the half
mile or mile, as may be, from Ibis
own front gate to his neighbours front
gate toward town." there is no ex-
pense account. With the drag in the
road at the front gate, he quits little
early at noon or In the eyening, as
the condition of the road soY decides,
bitches to the drag and renews his
boulevard. 1t becomes merely chore.
A ueighbor of mine says, after fell
low once gets into the fashion of drag
ging it sticks to him like bad habit"
For myself, / have been riding drag
since the spring Of 1896.
In the fall can take team from
corn wagon at the crib and drag my
half mile stretch before the corn Is IN
loaded, and in the winter months most
farmers can find an abundance of lei
sure in which to drag, and the operation
possibly is of as much benefit in the
winter as it Is in the summer. In this
latitude (near the Missouri-Iowa line)
we find two conditions of the road in
winter when dragging is remarkably
effective. One of these special condi-
tons is when q rough and frozen road
is thawed an inch or more in depth
at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Another favorable opportunity is at
the close of q warm spell when the
wind changes to the north and the
mud begins to stiffen with the chill.
If the mud is dragged just before a
freeze the road of course remains
smooth until another thaw, and the
difference between such q road and
one which was permitted to freeze up
rough" is as marked as the difference
between deep mud and a dry road.
On the one you can skim along at any
speed; on the other you must move at
a snaiPs pace, with the horses gingerly
bouncing around as if you were riding
over a fresh blast in a rock quarry.
Let me offer two paragraphs from
the Record, Hampton, Ia, the first
showing the skepticism often met, the
other confessing a radical change of
opinion and furnishing proof of the
value of dragging in the winter
months. The writer addressed a good
roads meeting at Hampton Nov. 2S
1905. Under date Nov. % in the course
of an extended report of the meeting
the Record said:
ut is to be regretted that there was
no split log drag at hand that he could
make a satisfactory demonstration
with. the one available not being in
accordance with the requirements, and
the attempt to show it's workings were
of little or no benefit"
But in the issue for Dec. 8 the Rec
ord admits the inaccuracy of its first
impression in the following paragraph,
the kernel of which is found in the
last sentence of the quotations:
''The King drag that we have here
in town is being used today on our
streets, and if we had teams enough
and drags enough Hampton would
have good roads within the city limits
tomorrow, whereas for a week they
have been practically impossible for
the reason that the ground froze up a
week ago last night, leaving the roads
all cut up. And suppose that every
man in the county had had a King
drag, costing about So, and had drag
ged the road in front of his premises
once over and back week ago Tues
day, the afternoon that Mr.. King spoke
at the courthouse, we would have had
good roads ever since. This is demon
strated by the fact that wherever on
our streets the drag was used that aft
ernoon has been a smooth track ever
since"
So much for the value in the winter
of the winter dragging.
But winter dragging prepares the
way for lessening the cost of spring
and summer dragging, because If the
roadway has this winter preparation
1t will generally dry off and De ready
to drag before the adjoining fields dry
out and are fit to be plowed or cult
waited. And SO another series of leisure
hours is provided for making good
roads without money.
would rather drag half mile of
road for year than water three horses
for year.
If should try to strike balance for
the twelve months, 1t would be some
thing like this:
DERTT