Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1913-03-07
The valHs OF Good Roads To TIE
Former.

Bad roads are the greatest drawback q
farmer has. Because Of the scarcity of good
roads the farmer has to suffer more from
the results than any other people. First,
he suffers in one way by letting his farm
run down for the want of fertilizer. because
he always breads to send his team out on
the roads to the city for fertilizers and
lime. The second way he suffers is by
selling his crops around the neighborhood
for half price instead of pulling his horses
to death on the bottomless roads so as to
carry them TO market. Farmers have real
lied that to live in neighborhood about
thirty miles from market and in commu-
nifty also that has not even one mile of
road that is fit to travel on that it is cheap
er to sell his crops at half price at home
than to drag his loads tomarket for double
money.
The farmer has to work just as hard as
any class of people to make living if he
lives In such a neighborhood as have
spoken Of But if he lives in a neighbor-
hood that has hard roads that are suitable
for travel, farming will be about as easy
an occupation as a man can find.
The farmer has to work very hard to
raise enough money each year to pay all
his debts, and he has also placed upon his
shoulders a yearly tax which he has to
pay out to the county, which most of them
do not receive any benefit from. The
farmer pays taxes in order to get good roads
and good schools. The good schools have
been provided in most places, but the roads
are so bad between the schools and the
farmers dwellings that most of them are
afraid to send their children to school for
fear they will be lost in the mud.
People have begun to realize that the
building Of good roads will always pay in
the end for several reasons If hard roads
are built throughout the country. the towns
and markets will be supplied with better
grain and the country will become richer,
more prosperous and more thickly settled,
while the countries that do not possess
good transportation everything is at a
standstill or are becoming poorer and more
sparsely settled.
Farmers have also realized it would pay
If all of them would join together and ap-
propriate some money for the building Of
good roads. This is being done in great
many places. The farmers are kicking about
the bad roads and have made move to
get good ones and it has been a great
success.
Now am going to tell about some of
the best kinds of roads and some Of best
instruments used in keeping them in good
shape. The hard stone road is one of the
best kinds of roads for the country In
preparing a very muddy road to put stone
upon it it should be dug up when dry and
mixed with five or six inches of medium
sized stone and then heavy roller should
be run over it so as to press them tight in
one place so they will not be loose or roll
ing. Next there should be two or three
inches of fine gravel sprinkled over these
stone and rolled with very heavy roller
several times. all mudholes should be filled
up well and the middle of the road should
be higher than the rest of it. The side
drains should be kept well open so the
water can flow off the stone freely. There
are great many roads which are going to
ruin for the want of some place for the
water to run besides down the middle OF
the road. A good road for hauling and
travelling purposes should be thirty feet
wide. Trees, limbs and brush should also
be moved from the side of the road and
| grass should be sown on the banks. The
best instrument for keeping the cutters on
the side Of the road clean is the split-lOl
drag, which can be made very easy and
also very cheap 1t is best to use the split
log drag when the ground is little moist
so 1t will pillow the furrow easily. The split.
log drag is simply made by splitting los
in half about the size is needed and faster
one behind the other with strong braces Sc
it will pull sideways to pull the dirt up il
the middle Of the road.
Another kind of road that is suitable 70
country purposes is the sand-clay an
burnt-clay roads. Sand-clay roads shout
be built in localities where there is plent,
of sand. The sand should be put dow
on the road at first and little clay mixet
with it and rolled hard, and hard clay SHOULD
be put over this sand and also rolled hard
Or another kind Of road is that which Il
reversed The clay is put down first ant
rolled hard and the gravel or sand is sprin
killed. over the clay and also rolled.
am sure II all the farmers would or.
eanize and force good roads to be built
the whole country would become richer
more beautiful and more thickly settled.
ROY S. EYRE.
Ninth Grade. Sandy Spring School.