The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1913-03-19
Which Is About All You
Hear About Ii.
WHAT THE |. 8 N. RAILROAD
Is Doing For Good Roads
Drag Used In Nearly
Every State.
is ONLY USED ON DIRT ROADS

The Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road Company is circulating in its
territory a pamphlet entitled How
to Have Good Dirt Roads, The
booklet ia a reprint of an article by
ID. Ward King, inventor of the split
log drag, published recently in the
Technical World Magazine. BY way
OF introduction the following state
ment is made:
1T is not pretended that in thus
endeavoring to enlist interest in the
Good Roads Movement the rail-
road company is wholly disinterest-
ed. The railroad company has
spent very large sums of money in
constructing railroads, and expects
to expend more, but the manage
ment is much alive to the need of
good wagon roads first, for their
direct and immediate benefit TO the
people; second. as being essential
to the development OF traffic upon
which must largely depend the sue
cess of its railroads. There can be
no antagonism between good roads
and the railroads. Only when the
one is supplemented by the other
can the greatest good be obtained
frem either" ----.--.--..- -.--- -.---.-.. e.
Some noteworthy facts as TO the
progress of the split log drag are
given by Mr.. King. Ten years
ago." he says, ''the first speech ad-
vocating the King method was yet
to be uttered" To-day, it appears,
the drag is in use in nearly every
State in the Union, in Canada, in
South America, in the Philippines
and in Australia. Literature relat-
ing to the drag has been translated
into foreign languages. One coun-
ty in Missouri is spending $4,000
to drag its main roads. Whole
townships have been organized ito
drag every mile of road after ev-
cry rain. One township in Iowa
has dragged its entire mileage for
three years, and the organization
is so perfect that it's roads, every
foot of them, are completely drag
ged in three hours from the time
the order is given In 1906 the
State of Iowa amended it's statutes
to permit the use of the drag on
the country roads, and lin 1909 the
law was made mandatory, and has
been broadened to include the un-
paved streets of the cities and
towns
Mr.. King does not urge his sys-
tenn as a substitute for gravel or
roads. Where travel is
sufficient to break down an earth
road, he says, the surface should be
covered with gravel or macadam.
He adds:
1T is the writer's opinion that
in localities where farming land is
worth $50 an acre, and stone and
a
miles of the proposed road, the
which does not put
hard surface on it's main travelled
highways is not living up to its OPP
And he believes that
where land is worth 500 the stone
can be shipped 100 miles by rail-
But when statistics prove that there
are 100000 miles of unimproved
highway in the United States-over
92 per cent.-and he realizes that |
only a comparatively small mileage |
of them can be surfaced with stone, |
and when he witnesses the contin-
ued waste and failure OF the old |
methods, II seems to him wise to |
lay strong emphasis on the impor-
lance OF the King system as the
least expensive method of building
and maintaining them in the best
The use of the split log drag is
increasing rapidly In Kentucky.
This is especially the case In the
of Western Kentucky,
where the reports are unanimously
favorable to its efficiency. The
State has large mileage of dirt
roads, and the King drag seems to
be the ideal implement for that
character OF road. The commenda-
BILE missionary effort of the l.. & N.
should result in the more extended