Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-12
THE FARMER AND
THE MOTORIST
HAVE BEGUN TO REALIZE IN
TERESTS ARE MUTUAL.
Farmers See Advantage of Good Roads.
Pleasant Driving, and the Haul
Is Better for Farm
Products

At no time so strikingly as during the
past season have autoists and farmers
begun to realize that their interests are
closely allied with the other for good
roads. Where decade ago the au-
toist with his machine was branded a
se-frightener and menace to the
public, and his gasoline vehicle was
sarcastically referred to as the rich
mans toy, today the tiller of the soil
and the rural dweller are looking at
the situation from an entirely differ
ent standpoint. The farmers have be-
gun to appreciate that the smooth
highway which is good for the autoist
is likewise a benefit TO him. He Is
realizing now the advantage to him
self of improved roads over which he
can drive his family and haul his farm
products to the city markets
The farmer, as a general rule, had be-
come so accustomed to seeing his team
struggling along muddy, neglected
highway in the endeaYor to draw half
a load that he had become resigned to
the belief that this condition was in
the nature of things. Slowly the awaK-
ening has come The advent Of tre au
tomobile has marked the beginning Of
a new era. When the men who drove
into the fight for better roads and be-
gan to get better roads, the farmers,
who at first fought their efforts, began
to appreciate the difference between
their horses struggling along the old
fashioned maintained highway and the
modern maintained road, over which
heavily loaded wagon could be moved
at comfortable trot.
Sometimes this help is purely in the
nature of favorable sentiment toward
the autoist and his highway efforts, but
much of it has taken the form of active
work on the roads with a simple device
called the split-log drag. The device,
during the past few years, has grown
rapidly in popular favor as an irnmedi-
ate maker of good roads, and at ride
ulously low expense. Oven ten thou
sand farmers in Missouri are keeping
in excellent repair, with the split-log
drag, the ordinary country dirt roads
leading from their front gate to their
neighbor's front gate, toward town. Fif-
teen thousand are working on the roads
of Illinois. The department of high
ways of the state of Illinois has Off
cially adopted this system of maintain
ing it's roads throughout the entire
state. The state of Ohio has taken up
this method of road making, and fore
most among automobile clubs of the
nation to become enthusiastic advo-
Gates of this method of getting good
roads now, today, cheap, stand several
clubs in Pennsylvania. Among them
are the Lancaster, Harrisburg, Pitts
burg Automobile clubs and the Will
Transport Good Roads association.
The split-log drag is made from an
ordinary log, eight or ten inches in
diameter and from seven to nine feet
long. The log is split in half, and the
halves are spiked thirty inches apart.
the split sides to the front. A team of
horses is hitched to the drag by means
of chain, and the latter is dragged
along at an angle of 45 degrees, moving
the dirt to the middle of the road. This
dragging process is done after each
rain. The farmer stands on the drag,
and the moist earth, as it moved to the
center of the road, fills the ruts and
smooths out the uneven places.
About one hour is required for the
farmer to drag a mile of road after