“ The Gospel of Good Roads.”

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 228, 29 September 1905, Page 2

“ The Gospel of Good Roads.”

[Wanganui Hxrald.] “ The Spread of tbe Gospel of Good Boads” is the title of an article written by Mr D. Ward King. We have not a copy of the article before us, but, judging by a summary published in the “ The Gisborne Timas,” the information supplied by the writer should prove of great interest to the people of this district, more particularly those whose lot is cast in the poirly roaded back blocks. Mr. Ward King describes how road mending has been revolutionised in America by what i« known as the split-log drag, a contrivance that costs comparatively nothing. The method is absurdly simple, and, as our contemporary says, is car taialy worthy of consideration both by tbe local bodies and by settlers indivi dually and collectively. What has already been accomplished so far as the spread of tbe movement is concerned, may (states Mr King) be put in a few words • “ It has been back d and pushed by the Missouri B iard of Agriculture ; one railroad, the North < Western, has sent out a 4 Good Roads i Spocial* for tbe purpose of evange j li-ing the farmers of ifo territory . ; other roads are eager to inst-al the ' same kind of a broad gango, public spirited oimpaign . thousands of milt

of waggon roads have been perman ently reclairned from bad to good, and , hundreds of meetings have bean held in the nine States in which g »s--pel has been disseminated by means of pratioal demonstration. At thee l meetings thousands of persons have pledged themselves to mike and to use a split-log drag; hundred of news papers have taken up this m ivement. giving it generous space and a square deal; hundred’, if not thousands, of dollars have been raised anl offered in prizes for the best mile? or half mile? of drag roads, and inert important of all, perhaps, the public sen iment of scores of communities has been stirred to self-respecting hopefulness and energy by this new gospd of ‘good toadwithout money.’ Experiencing so much inconvenience from bid roids, Mr King began to investigate and ex periment, and be says : “Acting un der the persistent impulse to expari ment, I one day bitched my team to a drag made of a frost-spoiled wooden pump stock and an old oak post, held parallel to each other by three pieces of fence boards, about three feet long. Smooth wire served in the place of a chain, and a strip of plank laid be tween the posts and the pump stock gave me a rough platform upon which to stand. The horses were attached at such a point of tbe wire as to give tbe drag a slant of about forty-five degrees in the direction required to force the earth that it would gather from the side of the road up into the centre. We had just had a soaking rain and the earth was in a plastic condition. I had driven this drag but a few rodj when I was fully aware that it was serving at least the initial purpose for which it was intended—that of levelling down the wheel ruts and pushing the surplus dirt into the centre of the road. At my neighbour's gate, toward town, I turned around and took tbe other side of the road back to my home. The result was simply astonishing. More rain fell upon this road, but it “ ran off like water from a duck’s back.” From that time forward, after every rain or wet spell I dragged the half-mile of the road covered by my original At the end of three months the road was batter than when it Ind bean dragged for three wsek-r. and at tbe end of threa years it was immensely improved over its condition at the end of the first year’s work. I studied tbe result of each step in my experiment and finally learned that three elements ere required to make a perfeci earth road, and that the lack of any one of them is fatal to the result. To be perfect an earth road must be at one and tbe Mine time oval, hard, and smooth. Alt of these indispensibles are acquired by the use of the split-drag in any soil that I have ever come in con tact with—and I have worked in the various kinds of clay soil, io tbe gumbo of the swampy lowlands, and in tbe black mud of tbe prairies. Observation of my experiment taught me that two weeks of rain would not put this bis of road in bad condition at a time when the highway at either end of it was impassable for a waggon. Of course it was plain that why road wa§ not bad was tfiat ibere was no mud in it. Bat why mud would not collect in it was not clear to me until I was taught my lesson by the very humbb means of tbe hog wallow. One day I chanced to notiee that water was standing in one of these wallows long after tbe ground all about it has become dry. Probably I had many times befo-e observed this fact, but not until now had it ccoured

| ti me to inquire into its cause. Examining thb of the wallow, I was impressed vrith the fact that it was almost as hard as a piece of earthenware. Clearly ibis was because the waftowing of the hogs had mixed or I “ pudled” the earth and tbe tyater together, forming a kind of cement which dried into a bard and practicilly water proof surface.” For four years the experimenter dragged his atrip of road from his front gate to that of his neighbour, and generally he was much “ chaff d” for hie trouble. B it steadily ihe wo k was f ro d on the attention of others, and traveilaft* were loud in their prahe uf the half mile of nice road. Ouo n« ghbour after another fell into liue a> d the a re ch of dragged roal Continued to lengthen, the public comm ant about it increased until tbe road authorities from ueighb raring townships and ‘counties begin to investigate the matter with tbe result that local farmers’ institutes asked to have prao ■ tic il dcmonsiratfona made. Iu the article many questions that are likely

to be raised are mentioned and answered. ** From your own front gate towards town,” is the rallying cry of the movement, which thus starts with the former’s self-interest, but soon leads him to consider tbe general interest of the community.