Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-10-07

or his.
IAN VIII go to Pieces if You Do Not
Drag"
A red clay road, perfectly drained.
surfaced with the top soil" to be
found everywhere, and dragged by 4a
man who knows how to handle a drag
once every week or every two weeks
such a road will remain ~seryiceable.
and satisfactory the year round.
Gravel 4oF esand-elay surface will Of
course be better, If drained and drag
ged In the same way and these mate
rails are mor abundant than you
think. But the top-soil road can be
Quilt for an average of about $1,000 a
mile, and maintained at an annual
cost of $50 to $50 a mile, Gravel at
the same cost if gravel is handy. All
of them willego to pieces if you do
not drag, and the best just about as
quickly as the worst. Down in Chat
ham County they are getting,
ready to spend some bond money on
roads. They can relocate to escape
rocks and excessive hills, ditch for
absolute drainage, surface with gravel
toP-sol, and arrange to drag
thoroughly twice a month after COM
p1etion, and have really good ROADS aa
\ ashley keep up dragging, atsan
initial cost of $3.50 a mile, average.
and $40 a year for upkeep. If they
follow the example of our other Sec
tons, they are not likely to do this,
but to strike out for a permanent
road, spend all their moneyzon a few
miles close around the courthouse,
and when completed forget it, and so
In five years be right back where they
0RA nm hrnR -vikL Al
sometime.
y fNot too ewide." Isaid. Sixteen feet
plus ditch room is plenty. Twosteams.
Ecanspass safely and easily, and there
is no need for more room. You can
Fcheaply and effectively drag that
width. down zone side from the center
to the very edge, and back up the
other side. II the road is wider you
leave little ridges to stop the flow of
water OF the road down near the edge,
and the next thing is mud.
Mot too mueh~crown." / said. II
the road is too high in the middle, the
water runs of with force, and cuts
little ridges, corduroy" from the
center to the edges. More important
than this, q drag Will rot 'hang up" a
surface that slopes sharply. Just
enough elevation to carry the water
that falls on the road gently to the
edge and OFF: three to five inches in a
16-foot road, varying with the surface
material.
Spend half your available money in
construction, and invest the other
half so as to endow your roads and
provide income for upkeep. Or else
vote a maintenance tax outright; and
l might say that 1 would never vote
for a bond issue for roads that did not
in some sure way provide an annual
income for maintenance. l am not
willing to leave this matter of main
tenance to any board OF county COM
missioners. Insure it before you
spend the construction money, or not
spend it. Some OF our weelthier coun-
ties have wasted enormous sums OF
money in. excessive first cost, and have
built roads that it was impossible to
keep=inngoode shGpe.uAt frst=maead-
am; and then; it turned out that mac
adam didnot lastforeVer, landsthatjt
could not be- repaired at reasonable
cost. Now these same counties are
building elaborate ksand-clay-Rlong-
side the obsolete macadam, and leav-
ing it to care for itself or trying 70
maintain it with Wheel-scra2e-s in
stead of drags, and the sanJ-clay has
already started its journey to the
place where all neglected good roads
go.
: aGullford, rIredell, sMecklenbnFg.
Wake, Rowan, and Forsyth by cutting
down the building cost of their roads
one half could better construct a type
of road that they can eheaply main
tain, and have money in hand to spend
in this way. Iredell County built
fine macadam road from Mooresville
to Sherill,s Bridge. 1t is worn out and
gone into "%tinocuous desuetude," and
they have now built an expensive
sand-clay road alongside 1t. Per
manent"" roads, so-cailed, both OF
them. The sand-clay ID now follow
ing the maeadam as fast as it can,and
nothing being done to stop it. In 1--WE
years or less, at the present rate, to
too will be gone, and 1redell will have
to go down into its jeans for Its third
: permanent" road over the same
route, all within fifteen years, unless
somebody wakes up to- the fact hat
there. is Just one single road main
tenance, tool in all the round world,
and that tool is the drag. That beau
tiful government road at Forsyth, Da-
vie and Iredell is getting ruts in iE,
and gashess cut by that road-butcher
the wheel scraper. West Of States
vile a similar road that was new ana
smooth two years ago is now getting
cut up, and a few years will see its
finish, unless the drag is adopted.
How Some Counties Are Wasting
Money.
Cabarrus had a WORKOUT macadam
between Concord and Kannapolis two
years ago, and they patched it by I'LL
ing the holes with crushed stone, with
a binder, and asphalt or something like
that as a top-dressing, all rolled down
hard and good and tight. 1t looked
like pretty good patch work. Last