Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-10-13

The granite was hauled by rail to
certain points, then loaded on the road
engine on the highway. This engine
would carry from ten to twenty tons
of granite which was distributed where
Improvements were being made. AS
soon as completed wagon travel went
right over it. This or any highway
will need repair, and one man should
be in charge of certain section, with
the proper equipment to do the work
the year round, and be held account
able for its condition. There is moth
ing pays better than stitch in time
on a highway.
The advantage OF such country
road is So varied and vast they cannot
be told, and the increased value to
farm lands SO great, would not esti-
mate.
/ have had farmers estimate it would
put from ten to twenty dollars per acre
advance on theirs and professional
man told me that he would stand for
an annual tax of $500 rather than en-
dure our present mud tracks. Auto
mobile men have said it would be well
worth five cents mile to run on.
My observation on country roads is
that men like sheep follow the trail.
Whenever the road is good the entire
travel goes over about six inches to
one foot of space where the wheels
travel, and where it is bad they zig gag
all over the road and sometimes into
the field, so that eighteen inches of
solid track to the wheel would do very
we'll in dry state like Iowa. Where
there was much travel l would lay a
double track and side tracks might be
used in many places to advantage. A
good concrete track will make better
road bed on which to turn out rs it has
been estimated, "and literally too,
that ninety-nine per cent of the travel
would be on the concrete. That is to
say, for every 100 miles you travel the
distance you would cover on the mud
road, by turning off and on, would not
exceed one mile, and if the track was
laid little to one side of the highway,
giving the man with the load the right
of way, only one team need turn out
in place of two; thus very materially
reducing the objection of turning out.
When teams were loaded going in op-
posite direction, of course, one team
must turn out. But suppose the road
was laid in the center of the highway,
and you could travel ninety-nine miles
on concrete rail to one mile or less on
our present highway, don't you think
you would be ''going some?
The writer is of the opinion if condi-
lions existed in Iowa as they do in Bel
GUM, where have seen two or four
dogs hitched to two-wheeled cart
loaded with produce for the market.
with a woman holding the shafts and
pushing while she balanced the load,
there would be Hobble-Skirt Good
I Roads Convention, and Torch Light
Parade in our country towns in Iowa,
and there would be something doing on
our roads right away.
The men have made such miserable
failure of road making anyway, it
would seem advisable to turn over the
management to the ladies. Their
executive ability and good sense is
shown in Cresco, as they built cement
walk to the Cemetery more than mile
in the country, which met the opposi-
ton of most men as "crazy thing to
do"
In travelling our Iowa country roads
it is surprising how seldom one has to
turn out. have almost daily run my
auto and covering say fifty miles, !
would probably pass five TO ten teams
after getting out Of the city limits, SO
that would not need to turn out more
than few rods in all that fifty miles.
When the track is laid if you do turn
out on the mud road you are no worse
off than you are now and few rods
will bring you back on the track.
You could travel twice as fast so you
would meet just one-haIf the teams, go
twice day to town the same time you
now 60 once. The farmer with one
team could carry the load of two teams,
and send the hired man and the extra
team into the field to earn his $4.OO per
day.
Minor objections and criticisms of
many kinds may he made to this kind
of country road, which makes no pre-
tension of being grand avenue boule
ward in style or price, but it looks to
me and others that it will do the bust
ness. The state of Iowa as an invest
ment can better afford to build it now
than wait, and get the advantages and
incrc Sc IN real estate even though we
only pay the interest on bonds and
leave the principal or part of it for
the coming generation to settle. They
will build these highways anyway if we
do not. Why not have them now?
have been asked, "What would you
do when you had to turn out?" an
swered, "Turn OUT" the horses know
a good road and will turn back quickly.
| have been told by one man that farm
horses would wear out their feet on the