120 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL RKrORT. 



of the road. The drac^ging- is the making of it." It is but just to add 

 that the season there has been wetter than any on the records or within 

 the memory of the oldest inhabitants. 



In this connection let me ask you did you ever see a wagon road 

 through a swamp or over a gunil^o slough which was dusty while at the 

 same time there was plenty of water and soft mud within a few steps 

 of the dusty wheel track ? Did you ever drive over such a road and watcli 

 the path rise and fall imder the horses' feet and see the mud and rushes 

 shake for ten feet around ? Did you ever see in such a road "chuck holes" 

 that were from eight to eighteen inches deep with dust in the bottom? 

 Dust in the chuck holes and water standing close by several inches above 

 the average level of the ruts? Many times have I seen such conditions 

 and it always se'emed to mc that I was driving over a raft or traveling 

 along the length of a great narrow boat. Did it ever occur to you that a 

 material that will make itself, make itself, mind you, into a huge boat 

 over which one can drive below the lex'el of the surroundin"' mud and 

 water — did it ever occur to you? I say that this same material would 

 make a splendid road if we could just turn' it upside down, turn the boat 

 bottom-side-up, as it were, and then take care of the bottom, watching it 

 closely to prevent holes or hollows forming in which water might lodge? 



Col. Clay, of Mexico, Missouri, tells me of a locality in the State 

 of Mississippi where roofs of lumber are built over certain roads. Oi! 

 is used in some places to assist in making a water tight surface for the 

 road. Asphalt would be without value if it leaked. John Loudon Mc- 

 Adam insisted on a firm, dry foundation to be covered with small stone 

 so rolled and packed that travel would cement the surface and make it 

 impervious to water. McAdam said: "The thickness of (the stone on) 

 a road should only be regulated by the quantity of material necessary to 

 form such impervious covering." The liighest type of macadamized turn- 

 pike therefore is a solid roof made of small stone. We have seen gumbo 

 roads that during a wet season reminded us of the boundary line between 

 the United States and Canada, becailse it was a chain of great lakes, and 

 these miniature lakes are there because those dusty chuck holes hold water 

 like so many big tubs. Gentlenien, it is more difificult to build a boat or 

 a tub than it is to build a roof. Hear me! If gumbo will manufacture 

 boats and tubs without the use of brains, surely men with brains should 

 be able to manufacture a roof from the same material. Let us roof our 

 roads with clay or gumbo by careful, regular dragging. A thoughtful, 

 conscientious trial will convince the most incredulous. 



Waste. — Few of us appreciate the wastefulness of our present system. 

 It is wasteful in the extreme to work the road with a big machine and 

 leave it untouched for two or three years thereafter. Especially is this 



