Little Falls herald., 1914-12-18
king TALKS ON ''C00DROADS'
INVENTOR OF SPLIT LOG DRAG
ADDRESSED LARGE AUDIENCE
AT HIGH SCHOOL

an impression which should establish a
new era in the history of road improve
ment in Morrison county. Before the
close of his talk he had secured the
promise of large number of the peo-
pie present to build split log drags and
TO use them to improve the roads in
the county.
R. B. Millard of this city, one of
Morrison county's good roads boosters,
presided over the meeting AMI intro
duced Mr.. King. He also introduced A.
j. Mcclure, dairy expert with the cx-
tension division Of the state university,
who made a few brief remarks and an
nouncements in regard to the extension
work which he is doing among the
Mr. King opened his talk by telling
of the location of his farm In the ex-
~treme northwestern corner of Missouri.
This farm, he said, has a front gate.
From the front gate Of this farm for
distance of one-half mile toward his
ueighbor S farm, leading toward town,
is the best piece of road that the state
of Missouri has seen in 19 years. NO
work has ever been done on that road
with anything except split log drag.
The cost Of maintenance during the
nineteen years has not been one cent,
he said. If it cost nothing to maintain
that road, end it is the best road, then
it has been proved that there is no need
Of expending money for good roads.
Before saying anything more, Mr.. King
asked the audience to excuse him for
using the perpendicular pronoun' so
often in the course Of his talk, (mean-
ing himself and his work on roads.)
His history, as told in his talk, was
in; substance as follows: He was born
in Springfield, Ohio. After he grew
to manhood he purchased a farm IN
Missouri and went out there to operate
it,, although he knew nothing of farm
ing. He could not tell the difference
between wheat and oats, ror could he
load hay or pitch bundles. He realized
his Ignorance and Immediately began
to. consult che progressive farmers in
the vicinity and in this way learned
that no two farmers did work the same
way. Each one had a slightly different
way Of doing things.
The roads in Missouri were in a terri
Bile condition those DAYS. A man could
walk into town much faster than
team of horses drawing a wagon
could travel the same distance: provid-
cd the horses would stay in the road.
Mr. King, having the education of his
children at heart, wishen 10 have them
attend school, but decided that If they
were to 90 to school, the roads had to
be improved so that they co"]d travel
over them. He then started the agita-
ton for better roads. And this brought
about the invention IF the split log
road drag. He did not start out to in
vent it with the thought that it would
one day prove the greatest road main
tainer made, for he did not realize its
great value until several years later.
One day. while working with drag
much similar to the nresent split log
drag, but then used only to break the
corn stalks in the corn field before
blowing it, he CHANGED to pay special
attention to the way it worked and his
thoughts turned toward using it to
drag the road in front of his farm to
make it smooth. He dragged the road
for distance Of half mile from his
gate toward his neighbours gate, lead
ing toward town, and found that the
drag cut off the ridge caused by the
rut made by the wagon wheels and de-
posted this earth in the ruts and in
the holes. He continued dragging the
road until he found out that by means
of the drag he had also made the road
way higher in the center. He was so
we'll satisfied with his work that he
paIted himself and said that that half
mile of road was the best within a ra-
dius of 500 miles. When he started
work on the road it was so-called one
ditch road, the ditch being in the mid
die, but now he had road that was
smooth and hi gh in the center. After
a time he found out that his part Of
the road dried up much sooner than
others, following heavy rains. He
then and there adopted the slogan or
proverb: cit is not the water that
falls on the road that hurts it, it is the
water that stands on it,
D. Ward King then built spit log
drag, patterned from the old corn stalk
drag, and started to talk "good roads
and split log drag' to his neighbors.
They only laughed at him and told him
that he was foolish for doing the work
without pay. Five or six years passed
and still the people would not listen to
his talks and would not even give his
drag trial. Finally the newspapers
learned Of Mr.. Kings one-haif mile of
good road and took the matter up, and
in this way the thing was started. Mr..
King was asked to 60 out ami tell the
people Of Missouri about his great in
vention, which he finally agreed to do.
At several Of his meetings some of the
leading agriculturists in Missouri
were present, but at the time they
stated that his idea was Of no value.
However, they tested the drag, and
few years later, one of these men had
no less than thirty split log drags,
which were used on the roads surround.
ing his farm lands:
The speaker told Of two tests to his
piece of road which proved it's dura-
bilitv. The first was a test with ws::c::.
For tw> weeks It rai~ea almost contin-
uously, yet, twenty-four hours aftar
tho last rainfall Of those two weeks
Mr. King dragged the road and made a
racetrack Of it: It was fit for the most
fragile vehicles and for the fastest
horses. The second was test by an
editor. He took a pick and swung II
fun force and let the point sink intc