Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1911-04-13
HOW TO BUILD GOOD ROADS
WITH SMALL INVESTMENT
King, the Inventor and Road Elk
pert, Tells In Comprehensive
Terms the Secret Of Good Roads
and the Profit In the Same.

Hon. d. Ward King, the invento
of the King system of road work
gives out freely for the public goot
and the promotion of road improve
ment the land over, the following
instructions in making good roads
and figures showing the great prof
it to be gained by having good
roads at any price. The results are
really amazing. He says:
There is more to road-dragging
than standing on a plank and hold
ing the reins over team of hors.
es. The team should be slow and
steady; heavy enough to haul the
drag with ease, and intelligent
enough to take an interest in their
work and to learn. Such a team
viii do better work the longer they
are used on the drag.
The man should be of a mechan-
zeal turn of mind and a good horse
man. The management of the team
has more than a little to do with
first class road dragging. The man,
of course, should be on the alert
to catch the finer points of the op-
Grafton and to correct the mistakes
he is apt to fall into at the start.
However able and attentive the
man, and no matter how powerful
and willing the team, if the drag is
improperly built, if it is mismanaged,
the best work can not be done. My
patience is sorely tried by the
atrocious cuts of King drags that
certain newspapers publish. Two
such came to my table today caus-
ing me to gnash my teeth ever since
the papers were unwrapped.
The so-called King drag, named
by the road enthusiast of Iowa, is
no pet Of mine-it is the fittest. /
got fine results from the two-slab
King drag and then set about its
improvement. I built six different
styles that l can remember at this
moment. Quite likely l built others
which l have forgotten. My real
pet" the design which was to dis
place the common form, and do
away with it entirely, is rotting by
the fence-we never hitch to it. II
laid awake at night planning the
pet" and felt positive that it
would prove far superior to the old
drag but the pct is a failure.
Build light drag. One can do
things with light drag that he
cannot do with a heavy one. And
one can weight a light drag TO
make it heavy. But how can he
tighten heavy drag? do not build
the drag too long. Especially III
your roadway is rather narrow or
runs between high banks.
Where the road is of proper width
the length of the drag should be
governed by the size of the team;
a 7-foot drag to a feet for a
team of 1600-pound horses. Nine
feet will be rather long for an I'M
cared for road right at the beginn-
ing no matter how light they may
be.
Build your drag from a cedar post
or the end of telephone pole, |
from 10 to II inches in diameter, or
some other light log. Use plank as
a last resort.
Split the post or log and select
the heaviest and soundest slab for
the front of the drag. Find a point
about 4 inches from the end of the
slab, the end that will travel in
the center of the road, and bore a
Pinch auger hole at right angles to
the face of the slab. Then % inch
es from the other end of the slab
bore another 2-inch hole in the same
Now one-half way between
these two holes bore a third; gett-
ing the three in line with each
other and directly in the center OF
the slab. The other slab may now
be brought up behind the first. Al
low inches between the ditch end
of the rear slab and the hole in
the ditch end of the front slab; /
mark and bore the three holes. The
ditch end of the front slab will thus,
when they are pinned together, pro-
ject some 16 inches further toward
the ditch than the rear slab.
Now prepare the stakes to joint
the slabs. ] prefer Usage hedge
about az inches through. If hedge
is not convenient rip some pieces
out of a Pinch oak plank. Full 2
inches thick is sufficient. Shave
the ends and slip the slabs onto
them until they are within 80 inches
Of each other, then mark each stake
with a lead pencil to show the
place the slab fits. You are now
ready to wedge the stakes into the