Evening star., 1948-09-18
Painful Di& From a Dentist

To the Editor Of The Star:
While opening some drain cutters across my
road to allow the water to run OF instead Of
forming gullies by running down the automo-
bile tracks, could not help but think that
lot of constructive, helpful and useful infor-
nation could be given your readers instead Of
the trivia about farm and agricultural pursuits
have wasted time reading. For instance,
what have just been doing.
The 2O-acre farm that bought six years
ago lies just across the fence from the home
farm on which was raised, in Seat Pleasant,
Md. 1t was owned by the same family for
the previous so years or so. The private road
in from the county road is about 500 yards
From the beginning at the house past the
barn to the county road there is gradual to
steep slope all the way, SO that the problem
of making and maintaining a roadbed for
year round service was a real one.
From the barn to the county road the water
running down the tracks had dug q roadway
from ground level in the beginning to q 4-foot
ditch at the outlet. The automobile tracks
were SO low that after a rain 1t was dangerous
to the car. While just a few feet away from
most of the road there was q much deeper
ditch, no attempt whatsoever was made to
divert the water. The result was that for SO
years and more gravel was hauled to I'LL in
the ruts and then the rain would wash 1t out
taking more of the 'roadbed with it as the
years went by. The wife of the tenant who
lived on the farm when I bought it told me
that her husband had to haul many, many
loads of gravel to keep the road in a usable
condition
After asking for and receiving many opinions
as to what to do about that section of the
road, decided to start new one from the
har, Str oioht no fn hA
road. First put some stakes where wanted
the road to follow. The field sloped gradually,
so with the tractor and double plows threw
two burrows up the hill Then I threw
two burrows down the hill against the two
previous ones. This gave me a small crown
for the road at the beginning. Then threw
four more burrows from each side. This whole
operation was continued two more times. This
was followed with q disc on the tractor set
to pull the dirt toward the center, giving me
a well-rounded roadbed.
At the county road there was about 3-foot
drop which had to be brought into comparable
shape with q hand shovel. That same evening
I drove my auto over 1t, and continued to use
1t in good weather until the following fall
when it was covered with good layer of
gravel. Runon drains were established and
are deepened from time to time after a rain,
when necessary. The result Is that have
good roadbed kept in good condition for year
round service with little effort.
A word picture Of the garden with helpful
suggestions of what is being done or what
could be done or what has been done from
time to time would be extremely helpful to
those OF us who make our living on the soil
or to those of us who have gardens, as do.
Being dentist, I cannot continue to fill
cavities, extract teeth, replace missing teeth
and render all the other services pertaining
to the general practice of dentistry without
MISUNDERSTANDING long, often and searchingly
for the cause of 1t all. Ancient man had COM
paratively little dental trouble. Man, today,
where civilization" has not "uplifted" him
shows little or no dental trouble, heart condi-
tions or cancer, etc. Why?
The only possible answer is general malnu-
triton which is showing its effect in the many
manifestations besetting mankind from concep-
ton To the grave II the conventional meth
DDS of agriculture have resulted in the alarm
ing degeneracy of our race, and they have, 1t Is
time constructive thoughts, words and actions
be given to create. interest in those who do
not think Of such trivial" matters and to help
those who want to help themselves and others
to better health through better foods, which
can be done instead Of telling about guinea
hens going to milk . COW.
RALPH L. MORRISON.