Mr. Chas. H. Hoyt of the U. S. Office of Public Roads, says,[4] “The split-log drag is a very simple affair, costs $2.00 to build, is economical to use, and every farmer or teamster living along a country road, who is interested in having the road past his place kept in good condition and is also interested to keep highway taxes down, should have a split-log drag.”
To maintain in this way all the important rural roads will make it necessary to put to work many of the teams that are idle when this work should be done. Perhaps some system can be devised that will require each farmer to maintain that portion of road in his neighborhood, and for so doing he may be exempt from paying a cash road tax. Those who prefer to do so can pay the tax in money, and the funds thus derived can be used to pay for the general supervision of this maintenance-work, and for the actual work of maintenance on the roads where farmers do not care to do the work themselves.
Earth or Macadam Road.
Since the hard, dry, smooth earth road is an excellent road, and since it is possible with reasonable effort to induce the people to construct and maintain such a road from one end of this state to the other, with a good many side roads of the same sort on the way, why not strive for this possible end, instead of attempting to get a few miles of hard road constructed? Such a road could be pointed to with pride by every citizen of the state in the presence of any citizen of any other state. Would it not be better to have a well constructed and carefully maintained earth road from Logan to St. George, a distance of 350 miles, than to have the best tar macadam road for a distance of 37 miles between Ogden and Salt Lake City? The longer road would cost $25,000 with many interested and willing people to pay for it, while the other would cost thirty-seven times as much with fewer people personally interested in it. Every farmer between Logan and St. George drives upon the public highway, while many persons in the larger cities rarely, if ever, do.
Cost of Roads.
An ordinary macadam road two rods wide costs about $20,000 per mile; a tar macadam road about $25,000 per mile; an asphaltum pavement some $44,000 per mile; a gravel road, covered with gravel one foot deep, costs from $1,600 to $5,000 per mile, and the cost of constructing an earth road the same width varies from $40 to $100 per mile.
While the figures given are the costs of constructing various roads two rods wide, this occasion is taken to emphasize the fact that a road sixteen feet wide is broad enough in most country districts, while in sparsely settled parts even narrower roads will answer all actual needs very well.
Ordinary Macadam.
Ordinary macadam pavement is composed of carefully selected stone and gravel thoroughly rolled into a compact mass, with the material so graded that the coarsest stones are on the bottom and the finer binding material is on the top. Such a roadway proved very satisfactory until the general advent of the automobile. In order to resist the digging or scratching effect of the driving wheels of high speed motor cars, which is technically called the shear, it is necessary to use tar or some other binding material for holding the particles of stone more firmly together.