As already stated, narrower roads will answer all necessary demands in many parts, and maintaining such will reduce the cost proportionately. A well kept narrow road is infinitely better than a broad one in bad condition.
Earth Roads Poorly Kept.
Concerning the maintenance and the construction of roads, Mr. Charles H. Hoyt of the United States Office of Public Roads, writes:[5] “It is sad when we have to say that because of neglect the roads that have already been built have been allowed to go to pieces and have not been properly maintained. Even our ordinary dirt roads are horrible examples of this statement.”
On the value to a community of good roads, Mr. Hoyt says, in the same article: “Any country which longer continues to insist upon remaining stagnant concerning highways, will soon be classed behind the times and avoided by progressive citizens.”
Mr. D. Howard King, Expert on Split-log Drag, Office of Public Roads, has prepared a bulletin called Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 321, on “The Use of the Split-Log Drag on Earth Roads.” All who are interested in this subject should secure a copy of this excellent paper from the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and make a careful study of the same.
Drag Reduces Dust.
On the use of this drag the bulletin says, in part: “Clay, when mixed with water and thoroughly worked, becomes remarkably tough and impervious to water. If compacted in this condition it becomes extremely hard. Another valuable result of dragging is the reduction of dust, for the particles of clay adhere so tenaciously that there is but little wear when the surface is smooth. Dust on an earth road is due to the breaking up under traffic of the frayed and upturned edges of ruts and hoof prints. If the surface is smoothed after each rain and the road dries hard and even, no edges are exposed to crushing, and the only dust which forms is that due to actual wear of the road surface.”
Examples and Their Cost.
The bulletin quotes Mr. F. P. Sanborne[6] as follows: “The least expense per mile (for dragging) was about $1.50; the greatest, a little over $6; the average expense per mile for five and one-half miles, a little less than $3.” Continuing, Mr. Sanborne says: “The writer has lived by this piece of road all his life, and although we have had the extremes of weather this season, both wet and dry, not for forty years has the road in question been so free from mud and dust. Parties who have known the road all their lives are agreed that it never was in so good a condition a season through.”
“The total expense for twelve months on twenty-eight miles of road in Iowa,” continues Mr. Hoyt, “averaged $2.40 per mile, and the roads were reported to have been ‘like a race track’ the larger portion of the year.