The citizen., 1913-10-03


Gold and Silver Medals offered to
Chndrn For Best Essay on Re
pair and Maintenance of Earth
Roads.
The Director of the Office of Public
Roads U. s. Department of Agriculture.
Logan Wallace Page, has announced that
the time in which children may submit
essays on the repair aud maintenance OF
earth roads in competition for the gold
medal and the two silver medals, has
been extended to March ,, 1914.
The conditions for the essay contest
are as tallows:
I. The Subject OF the essay will be the
Repair and keeping Up Of Earth Roads.
D 1t is open only 10 children from ten
to fifteen years, inclusive, who are actu-
! ally living on farms and who are actually
attending some school
; The essay should be not more than
eight hundred words IN length, in the
handwriting of the child, and should be
written on only one side of the paper.
4. In the upper left hand corner of the
first page should appear the following
statement: Essay on Earth Roads by
name Of child; age of child; actual resi-
dence of child; school attended by child. J
5. Children wishing to enter this con-
| test may ask the advice of their par
ents, teachers, neighbors, highway com
missIoners, and other people, and
read books or magazines giving intorma-
| ton about the subject. They must not
| give the information they gain in this
way in the exact words of an adult or the
author of a book They must express
| the ideas in their own language They
will be expected to use technical terms
and any words that make the meaning
clear will be acceptable.
6. The ESSAYS will be rated by an inn
| partial committee according to the un-
derstandng OF the subject shown bv the
| child and according TO the penmanship,
English, and spelling. The writer Of the
best essay will receive a gold medal; the
| writer of the next best essay, a silver
medal; and the writer of the third best
essay, a silver medal.
7. All ESSAYS should be plainly address.
ed, in an envelope with a two-cent
stamp, to: Committee on Children's Road
Essay Contest, Office of Public Roads,
/ U. S Department Of Agriculture. Wash
ington, D. c.. and should be mailed to
reach that Office not later than A. NJ.
on Monday, March ?, 1914.
s. Children who have already submit
ted essays in that contest which was orig
mally announced to close October 25th,
may if they wish. submit a second essay.
AS a help to children, the suggestions
given below are made. Children need
not follow these suggestions absolutely.
Thev must not submit essays in the form
OF direct answers to these questions. They
must not quote any OF the following ma
terial word for word
HOW TO TELL A GOOD ROAD FROM A BAD
ROAD.
To the Children: In getting facts to
write your essays for the prize contest on
the repair and maintenance of earth
roads, use your eyes. Look at bad
piece of road and a good piece of road
when both are drv. Study, particularly
the ruts and holes and uneven places in
the road to see whether they make it
easier or harder for the wheels of load
ed wagon to go along. Study the kind
OF footing that the two roads give to the
horses.
Now, study the same stretches OF road
after a good rainstorm. You will see
that one road holds small puddles, or
pools, of water that keep the road soft
and so allow it to be cut IN by the wheels
Of the wagons and the hoofs OF the hor-
ses. How do road builders keep water
from gathering on the travelled way of a
road? Should the road slope to the side
bitches? How much higher should the
center, or crown, OF the road be than the
outside edges Of the road? Why do good
bitches at the side of the road help make
the center of the road better for hauling?
What happens when bitches get full of
rubbish, or weeds? When ditch along
a road holds water or collects it into
pools, how does this iniure the road?
USING a DRAG ON EARTH ROADS
Have YOU ever seen a home made road
drag? 1t is made by splitting in two a
log six or eight inches in thickness and
about six or eight feet long. The two
halves of the log are set three feet apart
with their smooth faces forward and up
right They nre fastened together with
braces. A pair of horses are hitched to
chain fastened to the front end of the
log Should these logs be drawn straight
down the road. or should It be dragged
at slant so that a little OF the loose
earth will slide toward to the center of
the road? Should the dragging be start
ed next to the ditch. or AT the center Of
the road? Should YOU drag the whoe
road in one way or drag halt OF it in an
opposite direction? Should the dragging
be done when the road is dry, or after it
has rained? A good strong pair of hor-
ses with a well built drag can drag about
three or four miles of road in a dav
What would it cost a farmer to drag four
miles OF road? How would he be repaid
for the cost OF his labor?
Remember, children, you are not to
answer these questions as if YOU were an
swering an examination paper. You are
to think ab )ut the answers and ask peo-
pie for information and watch people ac-
tually working on roads, and then write
composition that will be just the same as
if you were writing a letter to friend,
telling him, or her, how they made the
earth road near you better, and kept 1t
from getting full of holes, ruts, and pud-