The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-13

being achieved rapidly. The road
from Society Hill to Camden, with the
exception Of one bad Q W
Bishopville and Camden, is good now,
and the many automobilists along this
line assure me that it will be per-
fected and that a bridge over the ford
will be built before fall.
Many Motorists Interested.
This leave only two short stretches
between Camden and Warrenton
about which there is any doubt, and
l feel sure that these sections will be
made good by fall. These roads are
used in summer n winter for the
most part by a~utomobilists at Hender-
son., Raleigh, Southern Pines, Pine
hurst, Rockingham, CheraW, Society
Hill, Lydia, Bisopville and Camden.
There are probably between two
hundred and three hundred
owned by the people along this route,
and the most of the road is frequently
Travelled by them. The capital route
has one great advantage over those
west of it, and that is an automobile
can go over the sandy, natural roads
of this country in summer or winter,
while I would defy any machine to go
over the clay roads Of the western
routes unless they have been mac
adamized. 1t is a fact hat it is all
two horses can do to pull a man and
a buggy over some Of these roads in
l11C u iII1C III lICy dIC dl
their worst, and while l will defy any
automobilist to go through under
those conditions, n ] doubt if one
could get mules enough to pull his
machine out if he once got into the
mud.
The Western Route.
"A large portion Of the western
route has been macadamized and the
are more miles of thoroughly good
roads by this route, but the gap are
deep red clay. The clay roads are
perfectly passable and in fact very
good in the summer time along the
western route and often times even up
to Christmas, but it seems to me that
a road should be selected that would
be practical at all seasons of the year.
This work of the New York He
raid and Atlanta Journal will not only
do more towards building through
roads in the south than anything that
has yet been done, but the route selec-
ted will be the route that will become
known to automobilists in the north
and Will be the route used by many
thousands of tourists in the future
going south. If a route is selected
that IS satisfactory in NOvenn Der but
not in January n February. one of
its greatest benefits will be lost.
Connections at Capitals.
THE capital route not only con-
meets the national capital with the
capitals Of Virginia, North and South
Carolina, but it goes through one of
the most historically interesting and
one of the Oldest settled sections Of the
south. 1t also goes through some of
the finest farming lands in the United
States. Many of the m raise a
thousand bales of cotton a year and
own their automobiles. They are the
progressive people of the sections in
which they live and are looked up to
as the farmers in New York and New
England were some hundred or more
years ago. The old cities Of Rich
mond and Raleigh, Camden, and Co
lumbia are known to the northern
people to a greater or less extent, but
such places as Cheraw, one of the
Oldest cities of South Carolina, has
probably never been heard Of by the
travelling public in the north, yet it is
one of the most beautiful cities or
towns that it has ever been my pleas
ure to visit.
Many Good Hotels.
The Hotel Jefferson at Richmond
is far famed for it's good management
and at Southern Pines there are sew
eral fine hotels. At Pinehurst, the
property which I own, / nave four
hotels which cannot be surpassed and
it has been found the mecca for out
door sports. k Springs and
Elba Springs are interesting old re-
sorts that have been ~patronized by the
southern people for generations. At
Camden you will find one of the most
beautiful old cities that can be found
in the south, with fine old estates and
three modern hotels. Columbia
boasts of one of the best resort hotels
in the south and an interesting city,
besides the fact that it is the capital
of South Carolina.
Small Cost Involved.
The greatest factor in inducing the
OF to go by the capital route is the
small cost by which it can be perfec-
ted. It costs only $500 a mile to build
a perfect road through the sandy
country, whereas macadam is practi-
cally the only material that can be
used for road building along the west
ern routes and his, as everybody