190 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



The next thing we did was to drag our roads. These main 

 roads were kept well dragged over the distances mentioned. 

 This (indicating picture) is a bunch of our boys doing road 

 dragging. Thus, with the road drags we have in our com- 

 munity, the roads are assuming a very credible condition. Since 

 we have graded these main roads we have been working on 

 others, and now have a fairly good system. 



Our Bridges. — -Our bridges were in very bad condition, and 

 many of them had to be rebuilt. This (picture) is a bridge that 

 is built of cement. It is a structure that appeals very forcibly 

 to us as efficient for practical purposes. The highway engineer 

 of our county told me that in using this bridge he cut down two 

 hundred and eighty-five feet of bridge maintenance this last 

 year — a very hopeful thing, because bridge maintenance is one 

 of the large items in road expenses. It has been our policy to 

 put in cement bridges wherever possible. In a good many 

 instances the township board furnished the cement and we 

 donated the labor. By so doing we have been able to get a good 

 many cement bridges in our community. We have used some 

 steel tubes with cement ends, and they have served the purpose 

 for the shallow bridge. The contest for the Saint's Trail stirred 

 our community with no little enthusiasm, as the towns along 

 the route were contesting for this highway. We got in the con- 

 test, too — just foolish enough to think because other folks did 

 we had the same right. After considerable work we were able 

 to land something like twenty-six miles of this highway, and 

 this (showing picture) is one of the scenes in our community. 



I want to say a thing regarding our Federal and State 

 authorities in connection with their attitude of helpfulness to 

 the country folk. We have never asked for a thing from them 

 but what they gave it to us, if possible. I want to commend 

 them for the kindness and willingness which they have exhibited 

 towards helping us in our difficulties. I wrote to Washington 

 and asked for some help, and the government sent me the 

 senior highway engineer, Mr. Heidel. He came to our com- 

 munity, traveled over our roads, studied their physical condi- 

 tion and made a survey of them, then he gave us a lecture and 

 told us just what we needed to do for the roads. So he helped 

 us very much indeed. The county engineer gave us of his time 

 and advice; also gave us much encouragement. This, in my 

 judgment, is the proper attitude to be assumed by these authori- 

 ties, because the rural development idea should not carry with it 



