Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1912-11-09
HOW TO MAKE
GOOD ROADS

The construction of the stat,
roads has given us models for shap
ing, culverting and otherwise drain
ing; and the free literature furnish
ed on application by the U. S. Dept
of Agriculture concerning the use o.
the road machine, the King drae
and the King ditcher, leave no ex
cuse for supervisors who cling t.
the kind of roads travelled by Noah
and his sons when they conveyed
the animals down the slopes of Mt
Ararat.
1t has now been settled, as a mat
ter Of law, that injuries to teams
wagons and automobiles from break
ers, loose stones and unnecessary
ruts and chuck holes can be recov-
cred from the township in which the
injury occurs. 1t is a case of make
good roads or pay heavy bills.
There is great economy to the farm
er in good roads that will permit
heavy hauling without injury to
teams and equipment; and the COM
munity which installs and maintains
good roads is building up its land
values permanently.
Last, but not least, excellent roads
can be constructed for a fractional
part of what we have been spending
for roads unfit for general travel.
AS to this last proposition, Schells-
burg and Napier townships have
been doing work and keeping account
of cost. Briefly described, the new
method of handling roads is as fol-
lows:
A regular train is made UP OF a
road engine, a rooter and two road
machines, the rooter being immedi-
ately behind the engine. The rooter
is set to cut at the outer edge OF
the proposed cutter, and is hitched
so as to cut deep. The plan is to
root" a deep, narrow slice at the
gutter edge so as to give the first
road machine grip. The first road
machine is then set so as to handle
the gutter side of the road, and the
second road machine handles the
road towards the center.
After a crew has been broken in
land it does not take long to do this,)
from 21a to 4 miles of road can be
shaped in. single day. Where the
ground being worked is stony a team
follows and collects the stone which
is forced to the center of the road.
The road train will handle road
16 feet wide from gutter to gutter.
If the road is wider the train must
be followed at once by the King
drag, which shapes the road at the
center; where the road is but IL feet
wide, or narrower, the road is allow
ed to stand as shaped until a rain,
and then handled with the King drag.
Once shaped the road can be Kept
in almost perfect condition with the
drag alone for the rest of the year,
and usually for several years as each
dragging compacts the road and
makes it more impervious to water
and less apt to cut UP with heavy
hauling.
If the cutters begin to wash they
are shaped with the ditcher for
fractional part of the usual cost.
There are several advantages In
this new method of shaping and keep
ing road over the old man-horse syst
EN-. In the first place, the power
from the engine is steady; 1t does
not come by jerks; and the road max
ers can cut and shear almost a hair
line: which can't be done with horse
power. Secondly: The same money
will nav for two or three times as
much road mileage as where horse
power is used and the work will be
far better done. And, thirdly: road
work can be done economically and
with the road train when
the ground is too dry to work sue
cessfully or economically any other
way.
The cost for constructing road by
this system is as follows:
Road engine per day. :. ~ S.oo
Three men to work machines
and rooter.. :. =. INV
Total $3.50
Assuming the low average OF IN
miles of road per day, this makes
the cost of shaping the road IS per
mile. The balance Of the years
cost for keeping such road in shape
so that, as one OF our road-masters
puts it, "half an hour after a rain
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