The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, May 11, 1892, Page 10

; _ they could dispose of their perishable produce. Good roads tear of wagon and team, etc., asmuch as he could make from several acres of land to say nothing of the comfort and pleasure in nding over! In order to have good roads there should be good overseers | foun good roads. a, and good tools to work with.—Mountain Grove Prospect. The question of good roads is attracting cousiderable attention just 2s. Missouri needs better high- now, and deserves all the attention 1t rec : ways. The condition of many county roads in this state during six months of each year is a disgrace to any civilization. Every good citizen should join in the movement for better dirt roads and more macadamized ones. —Columbia Herald. The sentiment in favor of better roads is growing every day. One gentleman says he will give $100 towards building a rock road from the public square west to Grand river bridge at Wright’s mill, while another hag given it out that he will donate $3,000 for the extention of such road to Goshen City. May the agitation of this important question con- tinue until something is accomplished.—Princeton Telegraph. The condition of our roads at present is such as to render them well nigh impassable. Parties who have traveled over the road to the county- seat this week say that the mud is up to the hubs of a vehicle in many places, and a ride to Fayette now is an undertaking to be dreaded by every- one. No better argument could be adduced in favor of rock roads than the present condition of our county roads.—Glasyow Moessourian. Monroe people ure moving forward in the road matter. Paris raised $3,200 for roads, and now offers $2,200 of it to improve the road for which the most money is raised outside the city, and $1,000 to the road having the next highest subscription. The people outside have taken hold of this matter in earnest. They had a great mass meeting and resolved that the time had come to make solid roads. Shelbina and surrounding country must look out for their laurels. —Shelbina Democrat. Poverty is illustrated by the condition of the roads and the farms that bound them ; by unkept horses, delapitated wagons, broken harness, and a ragged, half-dressed man. Success waits upon the man who works his land for that which feeds his stock, when every steer carries to market a ton of hay in the shape of beef, and fifty or more bushels of corn; when every colt or filley, every hog or sheep does measurably the same, and when but- ter by the ton will represent train loads of hay and grass, and oats and corn and other stuff. We must learn to set our crops, so as that in mar- keting they will cost the least money. Help at home doesn’t cost half as much as it does on the road or on the train. — Aural World. The most important question to the farmers of this portion of Mis- souri to-day is better roads. At this season of the year when wood is sell- ing for $6 or $7 a cord, hay, corn, eggs, butter and all other products of the farm are bringing the highest figures during the year, it is almost impossible to reach the ‘market, although you live only a few miles from town. A good system of roads throughout a county like Audrain is to-day of more importance than railroads. A temporary organization was formed in Mexico not long since for road improvement, and we trust this matter will not be lost sight of.—Mexico Ledger. Some people seem to think it would cost two to three thousand dollars a mile to make a gravel road. The one from Monroe City to Warren only cost $800 per mile. It is true, $2,000 per mile can be used perhaps advantageously, but $10,000 would make a solid road between here and Shelbyville. Let specifications be made out, bids be contracted for, and the contracts let by the mile, and we have no doubt that $10,000 would make as good a road as we need. A few thousand more would make it more permanent. If we cannot have a free road which is most desirable, let us organize a company and have a toll road. Some kind of a highway passable at all seasons is demanded. —Sheldina Democrat. Don’t you think that the condition of the roads in Howard county justifies turn-pikes ? People would gladly pay toll to get to town where We doubt not that within a few miles of Fayette there are dozens of farmers who have cord wood, hay, corn, wheat, potatoes, cabbage, apples, eggs and butter that they would gladly market while prices are so good, and the citizens of Fayette galling so lustily for such articles, at $2 for wood, hay $10 and $12 per ton, corn $2.10 per barrel, wheat 80 cents, butter 30 cents, ete., etc. But, alas, they cannot pass over the roads. Howard county citizens will lose enough within a few weeks to pay one year’s assessment to build rock roads. Is it not true ?—Howard County Advertiser. The Richmond Repudlican in speaking of building better roads, a mat- ter that is being considerably agitated in Ray county, as it is quite gen- erally everywhere, says that it is reliably informed that a first-class rock crusher may be bought for $800, and that a ten-horse power threshing machine will furnish ample power to run it. With plenty of rock and cheap fuel it would seem that here was a plan worthy of trial. Many pieces of public highway only need proper grading to make very fair roads. The sections of road here and there that usually get so bad might be properly graded, and then given a good overlay of macadam. The rock por- tions of the road could be gradually added to as means and opportunity | would permit. A citizen of Saline county writes as follows to the Marshall Progress on the subject of rock roads : “In a recent trip to my old home in Fayette county, Ohio, I was struck with the excellent roads which have been built in the last 27 years. There are only two mud roads in the country, all the rest are turnpiked and all free. «They are made by the two-mile assessment plan ; that is, the land on either side of the road is taxed to pay for it. The county court appoints three commissioners to levy the tax which is as high as $2 and low as 5 cents peracre. This is called the two mile system. They have what is called the one mile-system, which is similar to the two-mile system. “T then went to Greene county where they have the one-mile system | with this difference: They have special legislation for the county. The| Tand on each side of said road pays two-thirds of cost of construction and the county pays one-third. | “In Fayette, Madison and Pickaway, they have gravel near at hand, and the cost is only about $1,600 to $2,000 per mile ; whilst in Greene they | have no gravel, but have to break the rock ; they put about eight inches | ‘of rock on the road and then fill it in with sand, which makes a fine road and a better one than the gravel. This road costs about $2,000 to $2,400 leading to market would save the farmer in time, wear and | DIRT ROADS—HINTS HOW j places where it is still in use. lit | bitant railroad freight rates, a great deal more benefit would be deri red. jsnother year pass without improvements in our roads, = : VALUE OF GOOD ROADS. TO CONSTRUCT THEM IN THE BEST MANNER. By this term is meant those r d in the line of the roadway. How few realize the large element which transportation makes in the oads which are formed of the natural soil ‘cost of every supply, and how much it has They are 30 common as to be almost! commodity for sale. jour only roads outside of town and city limits, and will for many years be} Bad roads force people to live in cities : used largely in country districts, and ‘especially on the lines of cross roads!out into the country. This observation reveals its force perha | which Connect the main-highways. Dirt roads at their best are greatly | strikingly when read in view of the facts of railroad developmen \inferior to macadam and ‘Telford rou x = ae especial attention of the American people has be | durability + Cost of maintenance, drait past forty years. The railroads have centralized the } jlocations, in point of economy also. But the dirt road is here, and the) and larger towns, and arranged them along their ln j public hand must be directed to its treatment. The tirst and most import-| Now what is needed is an equal developement of ¢ jant thing necessary for the maintenance of a dirt road may be stated in & the areas of population and to relieve this congestl | single word—drainage. It is the one thing that can neither be dispensed | Railroads need better carriage roads for feeders ; : Most dirt is soluble, and is easily displaced under the/ for access to the railroads and to the cities; manufacturers need them f | intluence of rain, and this is hastened in the dirt roads by the| access to less populous and for lower rents and for less cost of jee of DEAN. wenousiover the wet surface. On ey ery mile of roadway|and transportation; merchants need them as an element in t te ch within the United States there fails each year un average of 27,000 tons of] of their-wares; the people need them for the reduction of the exy LLoammig heavy , limpid fluid, always directing itself to the nearest outlet satisfying their wants and for the efficient distribution of their jand seeking the lowest level. Water is hard to contine and easy to release, All ae work and plan after supplying their own and ¢ and yet, through sheer neglect of the simplest principles of drainage, | needs of their families, to leave a good inheritance to their child Water is the Most active destroyer of our country roads. ; good citizens take into their plans of public expenditure the le In providing for the drainage of a dirt road we should first consider wise investments to the next generation, What wiser, surer the material of which the roadway is composed. If a heavy, viscous clay} inheritance can we leave to om successors than good roads predominates, the ordinary side-ditches should be of good depth, and will be ind that endure both eveu then, in many cases, be inadequate to do with th e value of every good roads tend to take them aps more to which 1 given ads essential of a good highway; in nage, attractive quahit and in many ommi Sneed ther | with or neglected | j softening and t vetter roads that can mhonu- preserved and used at little expens He for thorough drainage without the} ments and as investments during the yeu addition of a center drain running midway between, and parallel with, the Pope inthe Forum. — ee center drain should of course be filled with jeose irreg- An excellent idea is advanced by the Kansas City Sfaron road building, agent ase ern ae broken bricks, or similar fillings. covering 4! Audrain is about the leading county in other respects, why net build the ne of tiles or fascine 2 P neo ¥ : : z S ; ah Geo nts bie at the bottom, and should be connected with the {first ten miles of county road for the others to pattern by, as the Star side ditches by cross drains carrying the water outward from the center} suggests below: ’ F proper intervals 2 Je p vay , 4 4 a naa ¥ se drain at proper intervals along the length of the roadw ay. Center cree The proceedings of the Road Improvement Convention, held in Spring- though often greatly needed for the improvement of country roads, are not} field, Ill., are not particularly cheerful reading for the friends of better in common use. ‘They add somewhat to the cost of the roadway, but inj highways. Statements were made showing that the State of Hlinois had most cases considerably more to its value, and should be employed in all expended fifty-six million dollars on the common reads of the cou red withont ituations where s: - . ~ "si bs yee a > mac sry for carrying on the ancient situations where sand or gravel cannot be had to relieve the heaviness and = a Pee oo oar eats ‘ h yy AXp ayers of Illinois veo _— ae: Eravel; sand or other porous} ¢350,000 per annum. Missouri will probably be obliged to solve this road ere eam Ie conveniently or cheaply obtained, the center and cross problem and is in a good pusition to do so. ‘he mud of Missouri, though drains may often be dispensed with by mixing the grsvel or sand in plenti-{deep, is not absolutely fathomless like that of [linois, and the material for ful quantities with the clay roadway, so as to insure as nearly as possible a} ™#king and mending roads in the —— of rth, ac created in way : : = 3 ‘ ak i i i eb os » Missouri ¢ ty make ten porous and self draining - ? oe ae = of rock is abundant in Missouri, Let some issouri county ! a gz surface layer, which should not be leas than ten) miles of county road, high enough, dry enough, wide enough, good at all sell uavnae cae proud be laid on the rounded os sloped subsoil so as to seasons, warranted not to slide out, sink down or roll over, and the question insure easy drainage into the side ditches. is settled. If it is possible to construct ten miles of road that will stand In locations where the prevailing material is of a loose, sandy nature, and centuries to come?—A. A. the Missouri climate the year through, then ten thousand miles may be the difficulties of drainage are more easily overcome, and side ditches, if built.—Mexico Ledger. : : found necessary at all, may be made of xaoderate depth and left open, The cry for better country roads continues urgent and is growing in without incurring the risk and dangers of travel that prevail where the volume in the Southwest. In the March Forum Colonel A. A. Pope gives deeper open ditches are used for draining heavier soils. But, on the other|some good suggestions that promise good results wherever adopted. He hand, the light and shifting nature of sandy road. material destroys it value | promises among other things a Bureau of Roads to each State, whose as a surface layer for an earth roadway, and its deficiency im this respect is business it should be to ascertain and supply to communities requiring it, most easily remedied by the additioa ofa stronger and more tenacious sub- | relating to the expense, mechanical construction, care, durability, use stance, such as stiff clay. Wher mixed with sand in proper proportions and extent of the different kind of roads. In connection with this burean, (which in each case depend upen the nature of the clay and sand used, he would have some kind of State supervision or advisory assistance by and which can best be determined by experiment) this composition affords|Competent engineers in road and bridge building. ‘There little many advantages which make it superior to a roadway composed of either doubt but that such a state bureau, if properly managed, would be of vast sand or clay when used alone. The sand tends to quicken the drainage | assistance in the economical and efficient expenditure of money in country and to destroy the sticky, tenacious qualities of the clay, while the clay | road building.— Republic. supplies quality of cohesion in the substance of the road. service, counteracting On Tuesday, April 5, the taxpayers and voters will have to elect a road the shifting qualities of the sand and making the roadway more easily | overseer in every road district. None but good and competent men should packed and rolled, aud more likely to retain its proper grade and slope. | be elected to fill this important office. We say important because it is one —/. B. Potter in the Century. of vital interest to every business man in Wellsville, as well as every farmer ea in this township, Without good roads the farmers cannot get to town WHAT GOOD ROADS WOULD MEAN. with their ae. Let ee farmer turn out on Tuesday, April 5, and They would make it possible for the farmers to take advantage] select the very best material available for road overseer.— Wellsville Optic- promptly of the highest market, no matter at what season of the year. News. They would save him days amd weeks of time which he wastes every is year wallowing through the disgus\ing mire of dirt roads. — pes Pe igre Meee . E sri ire Priest ao — They would reduce to a mimimum the“wear and tear on wagons and Bart A ree carer rag carriages. If our common boast that we are a progressive, wide awake and They would lessen the experse in keeping horses in working order, and| ingenious nation is well founded, what can be urged to exense us for vastly less horses would be- required in the county to perform the farmer’s| adhering to the antiquated and inefficient methods of making and keeping work. our common roads when we have before us the great economy and splendid They would require less expense to keep them in repair than do the|results produced by the adoption of more intelligent methods in other dirt roads. countries? They would make it easier for a team to pull several tons over their] than haa ¢ smooth surface than to drag a wagon through the mucl. They would aiford ready communication with the outside world at all times of the year. They would spare the farmer many vexatious and ‘nervous strains. They would practically shorten the distance to the local market. They would increase the demand for country and suburban property. They would be free from dirt in summer and muid and ruts in fall, winter and spring. They would bring every farming community into: closer social rela- tions. In many respects we have greater need of hard-surfaced roads ither France or England. Our rainfall is considerably heavies than theirs and our dirt roads for weeks at a time are half as deep as they are wide. Farm traffic is suspended and horses are kept in idleness. Official statistics shot that there are something over 16,000,000 horses and mules on the farms of the United States, and at a moderate estimate of twenty-five cents per day as the cost of feed for each animal, we see that it costs the farmers of this country about $4,000,000 per day for this item alone. Less than 50 per cent. of these animals would be sufficient to do all the hauling of farm produce carried on in this country if even the main roads were put in first-class condition, but, not to hope too strongly They would make an evening’s drive a pleasure in stead of a vexation, for the attainment of distant things, let us suppose that such an improve as it is now. ment be projected as would render unnecessary only one-eighth of the total ‘They would do away with the absurd poll-tax and supervisor system in| number of the draft animals now employed. This would reduce the entire number by a little over 2,000,000 and would effect a saving each day of They would be, in short, the best possible investm ent to the taxpayer|about 14,000 tons of hay and 750,000 bushels of oats, which, reduced to built and cared for by the national government and paid for by a|money value, equals $300,000 per day, or about $140,000,000 per yeur. national tax. Add to this the value of the animals, $140,000,000, and we have a E al these they would do, unless experience goes for naught.—ural| total of $254,000,000 saved for the first year. Of course these figures do Werid not represent the real loss detailed to our farmers | Good roads--roads which would be passable in January, Febuary and That loss is beyond computation ; but in whateve > March—would be worth at least one cent per mile for each hundred directed, and wherever the logs is susceptible of calculation, the same start- pounds carried over them more than they are now. ling exhibit is bound to appear. A recent careful count shows over 300 Farmers, it would be cash in your pockets to be able to all your sbendoned farms in the fertile aud populous State of New Jersey.— products at the market prices during these manths, instead of selling Engineers Magazine. sooner, or waiting for fine weather. This is a subject that the County Alliance, the Sub-alliance, the debat- ing societies, and evezy body ought to take up and agitate. If as much were to be said about the condition of our county roadg as is said abou texor- y the use of dirt roads. way the computation is DRAIN THE ROADS. Those who have studied the road question suggest, that where rock or gravel roads cannot be made, that a drain be Jaid under the ter of the roadway, having vents at all the depre: These can be made with tile, stone or even three or four poles laid in a bunch inthe center. Let these be about a foot under the center of the road. The water will be drawn off —Linneus Bu Uetin. very rapidly in this way, and the roads never become very muddy. It is ssions. Figure on this for yourself, and then agitate the question. Dor1’t let per mile. “ This tax is levied and bonds issued and sold at par, running one, two d three years, | ‘The grading of roads cost about $800 per mile, three feet high in! center. The grade is about fifteen feet wide at the top and covered with hirteen inches of gravel thirteen feet wide, or eight inches of broken rock | ith sand same width. This width enables vehicles of all kinds to pass | with ease. In Greene county they have to hau! their rock from one hundred | yards to eight and ten miles, and I think Saline county could build her| dsascheap. This would give employment to a great many farmers in| he summer after their harvest is over. Most of the roads in Ohio are| built by the farmers near the road. The increase of value of land on! turnpikes is from $5 to $10 per acre. The capacity for ordinary team is| @bout 3,000 pounds on dirt road and about 5,000 pounds on turnpike, that| when dirt roads are in good order.” | | | linstead of appropriating millions for rivers and harbors and railroads, that icin om ini Fulton, addressed a small but appreciative aud Jence| the standing of the water in the roads that causes them to | at Miller's Opera House last Friday night on the subject of ‘ Roads.” He up by travel into a deep mire. rounded up e advocates the contract system, a state department, government assist: ice ;|-The tracks made by horses and vehicles will hold the water and : ‘ the roads to soften it, unless there is under drainage. Wi it be put on the dirt roads over which nine-tenth of the traffic of the country | grains have been tried, their beneficial effect is said to be wo goes. Many other excellent suggestions were made. At the close of his|.+.n4s to reason that such should be the case. Lands ti address the Daviess Co. Road Improvemerat Society was organized with about] on account of being wet and clammy have been made by ur twenty members and the following officers: President,D.L.Kost; Vice-Pres- the most productive in the country. If achannel for the ident, Holmes Cravens; Secretary, Wes. fs. Robertson: Treasurer, J. P. 0.) Cater trom the roads can be made not over a foot below Givens. The society will hold its first Taeeting next Monday at 2 p. m- at} eater would speedily reach it, and the surface be the court house and it is requested that all persons in the county interested jeri cost of such drainage could not be more than from 875 to $200 per in the improvement of our roads meet with us and becorne mem bers of the mile. We hope it will be tried in this county this yea society. Hon. J. W. Alexander has been requested to address the> meeting; | geers, that we may see just. how beneficial such drain Monday, on “How We Can Impreve Our Roads Uncler the Pres-nt Law?” i After a vote of thanks to Mr. Erwin the meeting ad_journed.-—Gallatin Democrat. ‘i ymeée work Roads may be worthless er drainage > of the “Tous OVer- ge is.—Shelbina Dem- i » Levi CHUBBUCK, Secretary State Board of Agriculture. Ci 3 Alle Bou Bur Ball Bro Ri che Colt car cla cou Dee Dar Dut | De: Dee