Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-03-09
NEW METHOD FOR
 MAKING GOOD ROADS
OIACHITA COUNTY FARMER PITS GRAVEL IN RUTS INSTEAD
 OF IN CENTER.
New Method Is Being Applied and Hurnham Is Becoming
 Famous.

Millvillc thriving little saw-mill town of Ouachita coanty, Ark lives pros farmer by the name of Ollie Burn ham. By hard work and good sense he has managed to acquire so decent share of the worlds goods that his neighbors point him out as an example of a successful man who has built himself literally from the ground up: for all his chances have come only in the limited circle of his farm and the mill work close by it.
 Like most men who have had to de- pend on their own efforts 10 pull them through. Burnham has developed the faculty of keeping his eyes open. and of making a close study of the prob lems of life as they touch the man in the country He long ago woke up to the fact that good roads are one O. the main factors that are yet to be se- curedbef ore the farmers life is tc prove happy one. In hauling the products of his farm to the market. or logs to the mill-for Ollie Burnham is a man who does not stand bact from work with his hands because O his means--he has had ample chance to obserce the drawbacks of countr1 road making, and to endeavor to fint ways and means to improve the usua conditions.
 old man. King, the inventor o the world famous King Drag. tha' widely known Missouri farmer. ha( exactly the same experience: and th' result was that the world is richer fo' one of the most practical and economi cal devices for road making that haj ever been conceived. It was devised by one who is ,ot an eXpensively edu- cated civil engineer but by plain and practical farmer from way out in the sticks.
 Now comes another idea, equally good and practical, from the same sor, of sourc. Down here we call il the Ollie Burnham Plan. It is tC build gravel roads that will endurV. all the trails that the average countrs roads are put to. but at an economical cost in construction. gravel in the center of the roadbet and then spreads it towards each side from the crest in a gradually thin ming quantity. The Ollie Burnhan. idea is that the proces must be revers- ed. The trouble with country roads sis from wheel ruts. Eliminate these & and then use the King drag to smootl and drain the roads, and you vii have as perfect road as can be made and at litte loct.
 The way that Ollie Burnham gets rid of the ruts is by arranging the blanks in the wagon beds, of the wa gons which haul the gravel to b placed on the road, so that the grave drops into the ruts until they art filled solid The wider and deepei the rut, the better for lasting results A very light top dressing of grave between the rGts on the middle of the road. and the road is ready for per manent travel. There will be very little trouble from muddy roads there after
 River and team will naturally favo themselves by following the easily de fined smooth, and packed track With but little effort. it will not be long till the ruts will make an easil' followed roadway, as solid as con g crete and just as strong one that bind the roadbed into a compact mass tha will not wash out. And one of tn most valuable features is that it take less than half the gravel to do it thal the usual method of center building
 IL must be remembered that thi plan is intended for country roads; sing.e narrow track for narrow roads and double pair of tracks where tht width of the road requires it. It ma not appeal to the professional High Way commissioner. but it has beel proved to be the most useful and eco nomical method for the neishborhoo which desires good permanent roads but which has limited means for tn building of them
 Down this way we prescribe treatment of the Ollie Burnham grave plan anG the use of the King drag to poor country roads as combination that will De a sure cure for roai troubles