Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1916-05-19

men, between the ages of twenty one
and forty-ive, but the best way would
be to have he tax paid in cash and
hire competent men to do the work.
BY working out the tax, they usually
do not care how the work is done, just
so they work the limited time and get
rid of the tax.
One of the comm On forms of stone
road is the macadam road. This is
very expensive, costing from three to
six thousand dollars per mile, and can
not be built only where there is dense
population and where a great deal of
travel is done. l would not recommend
this for our country roads, because it
is too expensive and besides earth
roads if properly made and maintained
are very serviceable.
Good gravel roads are better than
dirt roads but not as good as the stone
roads. They are much cheaper how
ever and many communities are pros
pering by their use and are getting a
very serviceable system of roads.
The object in view in road building
should be to make the roadbed as near
level as possible, that is to avoid hills;
also to keep it as firm and unyielding
as possible. A very common road is
made by. taking the dirt from the sides
and putting it in the middle. This
makes very good road because it al
lows the water to run off into the side
bitches. These bitches should have
proper outlets because if allowed to
stand they are very detrimental as the
water will soak up through the dirt and
soften the roadbed. All farmers should
be willing to cooperate for the i'm
provement Of roads, but often they OBJ
ject. What right have they to OBJ
ject? Are not all the people in the
community benefited by the improved
condition Of roads?
Whenever small rut is formed in
the road it should be filled in with sim
liar material, because, if left open
water will settle into it and soften the
roadbed. Every time wheel passes
through the rut it lifts some mud out
with it and makes it deeper than be-
fore. At last several loads are re-
quired to fill in the place while in the
first place it would have needed only a
few shovelfuls. 1t easily stands to
reason that if roads were fixed at the
proper time, that they would be much
improved and great deal of labor and
expense saved which could be applied
elsewhere. Many people complain of
the great cost of good roads. Why is
it that the expense is so great but still
the roads are in poor condition? 1t
is simply the reason that the labor is
not applied at the right time and then
it is seldom competent in filling the
necessary requirements.
The main part of road improvement
is to keep them in repair. Repa rs con-
sist of fixing bridges and culverts, fill
ing in ruts, mudholes and smoothing
off and rounding up the road so that
it will readily shed water.
The simplest instrument to keep the
road in repair is the drag. This should
be used soon after a rain while the soil
is still moist and soft because the ridges
are easily cut off and pushed to the
center. In width four rods of space
are usually allowed for all roads, ''This
certainly ought to be wide enough for
any road, ;" is the remark often made by
certain individuals. Of course it is if
the major part of the space is allowed
for the roadbed proper, but in several
cases the road is not wide enough for
two teams to pass by one another. This
is because deep bitches are on the sides
and these are often overgrown with
weeds and therefore, even, if one
would want to turn out, they would not
know where they were going to land.
Every farmer should be required to
keep the weeds down along the road
side of his place, inasmuch as they
often serve as obstacles in turning out.
If the weeds are kept down the result
serves very attractiveness to his
place and will raise the value of his
property. If the road is good around
his place and the weeds are kept down,
than the buyer will be assured that the
place is in good condition.
Thus if all the conditions mentioned
would be carried out as they should be,
the roads would soon be improved con-
siderably This would save great
deal of labor and expense which could