The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-04-07
GOOD ROADS
At LOW COST
Interesting Discussion Taken
FROM Bankers Farm
Bulletin.

1t must be paid in advance. The
next is presented by the railroad-this
can be paid after the freight is de-
livered.
In the early days, when the rail
roads were poorly constructed, it fre-
questly cost 10 cents to carry a ton
one mile. Now it costs but three
fourths of a cent Average wagon
roads today charge 25 cents to carry
a ton a mile. Good roads do it for
half Of this amount, or even less.
An important question for us all to
ask is, who pays the freight?" Does
Jones? He does if Jones happens to
be the man who lives on the poor
road. Does Johnson, who lives on a
good road in an up-to-date community
and hauls loads twice the size of
Jones get any less for his crops? Or
does Johnson lose any money when
because he has good roads to haul
over, he markets his crops at times
OF bad roads and high prices, while
Jones can hardly get to town over his
bad road to bring home a few bags of
hour-to say nothing of getting load
to market?
Jones, however is not the only one
interested in better roads. If Jones
makes more money he can afford to
build that new barn he has needed
for years, and the lumber dealer and
the hardware man and the carpenters
and the stone masons will be benefit
ed. If Jones gets more money for his
crops-not necessarily by charging
higher prices, but simply by refusing
to pay so much freight, he can open
bank account and the banker will
prosper. He can send his son to the
Short Course in Agriculture to learn
how to get larger and better crops
from the same acreage. incidentally
that son will get a broader view of
things and be a better citizen and
neighbor-in short a greater asset to
the community. He will be better
able to buy his daughter a piano and
put conveniences and comforts in his
home so that he and his family will
enjoy life all the more, all of which
will make the merchants from whom
he buys more prosperous and more
willing to contribute to improvInh the
roads. To sum it all up, community
with good roads is in all ways a bet
ter place to live than one with poor
roads.
How to Get Them.
There is no presto change" or
other charm that | know of that is
effective in making bad road into
good one. 1t takes strong backs,
greenbacks" and gray matter One
of the necessary things to start and
carry through a road improvement
program is that too rare quality
public spirit The thing can be prop
erly accomplished only when every
body pulls together. Another neces-
charge who knows his business and
takes pride in his work.
Five-siXths or more of the road mile
age Of the state is town road. Almost
all of these are dirt roads, but some
are built of gravel. The usual method
of caring for them is to let them
severely alone for several years, then
plow them up, turn the sods into the
middle with a grader, and without
any further attempt at smoothing,
leave them alone for another long
period This is the best scheme de-
vised up to date for producing the
least results and the maximum of
discomfort for the most money. The
average cost of doing this is about $25
a year for every mile of road in the
state
Road Drags Lost in the Tall Grass.
Better roads can be made at cost
of Sc a year for a mile. The trouble
is to get it done. The virtues of the
split log drag have been dinned at the
fixers of country roads SO effectively
that almost every fence corner has
one in it-hidden by rank crop Of
weeds and brush so that no one has
seen it since the first year it was
made Yes, now that you think back,
that drag did make surprising i'm
provement in your road the first year
you used it. But after that first year
you forget to use it, or you'd be
blamed if you would drag when the
fellows down the road left their road
in such bad shape" or you didn't like
the road boss-anyway that drag
hasn't been used in years.
That is where public spirit comes
in. 1t takes considerable of it to
keep on dragging year after year
until you really, thoroughly convince
the whole district that dragging is
the only way to make a dirt road;
until man would no more brave the
established public sentiment by leav-
ing the road by his farm undragged
than he would brave it by beating his
wife or setting fire to his dog. 1t ought
to be considered an offense against
the community, so that a man would
feel the disapproval of his neighbors,
when he fails to drag his road.
What Is a Road Drag?
Did somebody ask what split log
drag is like? 1t doesn't seem possible.
Space is too limited here to tell about
it, but here is picture of one on the
front page of this bulletin, and your
agricultural paper has a good cut of
it and will be glad to use it on the
slightest excuse and tell you all about
it. Just write them a letter and see.
Nothing has been said about the
foolishness of going UP hill when you
can go round, or going straight up
when you can choose a gentle, easy