Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1913-10-11
SPLIT LOG DRAG
DEMONSTRATION
IN Ohio CouHty--fiow TO Operate IT,
Good Results Have Been
Achieved

splitlog drag, has been demonstra-
ting to Ohio county farmers the prop
er methods Of using the Implement
which bears his name. Ills remarks
viii repay careful perusal:
About twenty FIVE years ago a rail.
road was built through our section. A
station was established three ISLES
from where lived A town grew up
farms we're fenced in and travel was
confined 70 a forty-foot strip. whereas
before one had the whole prairie from
which to choose The road got worse
and worse. We were msrooned
There were times when ] could hardly
get to town on horseback Then II
was that ! began 70 study roads.
First Carried a Hoe.
4 had considerable use for the
roads in taking my cattle from one
stock field to another and in going to
care for them, and got in the habit
of taking hoe or a spade along with
me. And turned the water out OF
the road whenever came to a mud
hole.
My start with the splitlog drag
was almost entirely accidental. first
used an instrument that had been or
Idginally built to break down cora
stalks in the spring. turned out with
this one day in March and drove
from my front gate to my neighbor's
front gate, about half mile Then I
turned and came back on the other
wheel track.
After every rain that spring, sum
mer and fail. | went out. And Their
put the apparatus away for the win
/ ter. 1t was not until two winters later
that learned that | could accomplish
more in winter than in summer. Next
spring when | took out the apparatus
! 1t pulled apart. Then | built the first
splitlog drag.
Fame or Drag Spreaos.
After ! had dragged the stretch Of
road from my front gate to my neigh
boris front gate towards town for
about FIVE years the fame of that
Estretch of road had spread over the
state. My first talk on the splif-log
drag was for the Missouri state an
/ thorites and my next for the rail
roads. Later | talked some for the
United States. But | am talking for
myself now, because others could not
supply me with regular dates.
"For eighteen years have cared
for the road in front Of my house. BE.
fore | started on it. it was so bad that
my neighbors turned into my fields te
avoid it. But no one has turned into
my fields in the last eighteen yeas.
"But don't forget this point" " u a
gesture of emphasis, "the success Of
the split-log drag depends upon the
earnestness of the man upon the drag,
What the Drag Did.
when | first dragged my road !
hoped for smoothness Later / got
what the engineers called contour, ii
was higher in the middle and died
off more rapidly than my neighbors.
Sometimes it was dry two weeks be-
fore my neighbor's. Once. | dragged it
with from two to four feet of snow in
the bitches 1t was dry the next day
nd other sections of the same road
were muddy for the next six weeks
Dragging will reduce the dust
from 10 to 80 per cent, and 1t will get
rid Of all mud holes"
Later. Mr.. King stated, he had
dragged this stretch after an open
winter, a wet spring and two weeks
of rain in May He added that it was
better than a race track the next day
Mr.. King then endeavored to ex-
plain why this should be so. He stat
ed that the water was held in the
center of the original road because
it could not penetrate the earthly ce.
ment in which it lay, it could not
reach the undertakings BY this
plan he had put layer after layer of
this cement-mud into the center Of
the road, which was first hollow, but
afterwards developed contour
These layers had been beaten down
by the horses, rolled down by the
wagons and baked by the sun. Then
with the layers two feet thick he
asked his audience did any of them
expect the water to penetrate such
surface when water wasn't able to
penetrate the original mud.
Why Use Steam Rollers?
He stated that sixty bushels of corn
-. u,haof IN !, ono aud ono .uflarfQr