The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1912-05-29
THE JOINING OF INTERESTS
And of Capital, Making Mat.
tiers Mutual, Proved Very
Advantageous.
A VERY INTERESTING LETTER
(From the Leitchfeld Gazette).
Scottsyille Ky, Nav 70. 1912.

ply will say that we found no such
law as you refer to, though | re.
member some talk about a law OF
that kind. | will give you as best
can a short history of our work
here on the pixies.
In either 1907 or 1908 Mr.. Joe
Meredith, a farmer living at Hol-
land, about ten miles east of here,
wrote the Commissioner of Agricul-
ture asking something about the
cost per mile of building pixies. In
answer to that Mr.. Rankin sent Mr..
c. NJ. Hanna, of Shelbyville, and
MIR. c. c. Crabbe, of Eminence, here
to make an estimate. They came
and announced the purpose of their
coming and-~oe called the CONNER
cial Club together and carried them
over the roads and had the County
Judge TO call the Fiscal Court to-
gether. They estimated that the
roads here could be built for 81 900
per mile and we induced the Court
to make an appropriation of $500
on each of the nine roads leading
out of town, provided the citizens
would raise a like sum. Our Com
mercial Club then agreed to give
500 of each of thse five, so that
the farmers only had $500 to raise.
That year the Bowling Green road,
the Browns Ford road, the Gallatin
road and the Holland road took ad-
vantage of the offer and the Court
employed Mr.. Crabbe at a salary
OF 500 per month to superintend
the work on all the roads.
Neither road was successful in
building quite a mile, but they all
went through the winter in such
good shape and such luxury that
1t was easier to get subscription the
next year, people contributing that
would not touch it at first. The
Court has continued that every year
since.
We have now 25 miles OF finish
ed road. The first year several OF
our home men, working under Mr..
Crabbe, developed talent for the
work and before he left in the fall
he told us which OF the men were
competent to go ahead with the
work and since the first year we
have hired nobody outside OF the
county.
will add right here that we
have no regular road tax; the Court
levies more than they need for
county purposes and spend 1t on
the roads. We first used some
crushed rock, but found It too ex-
pensive, although the town owned
new crusher, and since then we
have used gravel. The big expense
seemed to be getting rock ready |
for the crusher. The cost of |
building mile depends entirely on
how far it is necessary to haul the |
gravel.
Two wagon loads of gravel hold |
ing a yard each, dropped side by |
side and raked together, being |
careful to rake the large pieces un-
der all the time, will make nine |
lineal feet of road twelve feet wide |
and that is sufficient. This way it |
takes 1900 loads of gravel to the
mile. If you can find out what you |
can get the gravel put on at per
yard, you can soon figure it.
Part Of the road | built last year,
We could only make three loads a |
day from the gravel bar and on an
other stretch we made fifteen. The |
road that we made three and four
loads a day cost us 1920 to gravel !
a mile, after it had been graded |
and prepared for the gravel The
grading ought to cost from fifty to
two hundred dollars a mile, accord
ing to the condition of the road. II
you can find a gravel bar close to
the road, you can gravel amile for
three hundred dollars or less.
Our farmers seldom subscribe
cash, but so many days hauling.
am surprised that Grayson is not
building roads right along. If we
were rid of our railroad debt, which
is 100000, we would finish ours
Five or ten thousand
dollars a year from the Court, and
a road superintendent that has the
confidence of the people, to solicit
hauling from the people, can pike
any county.
The Mr.. Meredith, whom ! men
toned in the first OF my letter. has
long since gotten the road to his
house. a distance Of ten miles, and