20 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ties in ttiat state of Ohio; one of the up-to-date counties; one of those 

 counties in which they haven't also wealth, intelligence and knowledge, but 

 also plenty of gravel. Imagine my surprise, when I left that Commis- 

 sioners' office, they were admitting that 25 per cent of the roads were still 

 of the native soil. I went to Columbus. In the course of my remarks 

 there I told these people, that I believed I was safe in saying that 50 

 per cent of the roads of Ohio were still of the native soil, and all over 

 the house men said, "more than that; more than that." On the 5th 

 or 6th day of October I was in Springfield, Ohio again; I attended a hard 

 roads meeting there. In that meeting was Mr. Martin Dodge, who has 

 been at the head of the office of public roads. I made the statement 

 again there, that I believed 50 per cent of the Ohio roads were in the 

 mud, and he said, "80 per cent." I have reason to believe Pennsylvania 

 is in the same box. I have reason to believe New York is not in any 

 better shape. Now, in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, and all these 

 other little scattering New England States, if it is true that those eastern 

 states are still from 50 to 80 per cent in the mud, we are not so 

 much to be pitied after all. But while we are not so much to be pitied, 

 it does add to every thoughtful man the importance of this mud road prob- 

 lem that we think we solved in Iowa and Missouri. 



It is no trouble at all to make a mud hole in a wash pan. (Here Mr. 

 King presented a common porcelain wash pan.) Anybody can make a 

 mud hole in a wash pan. This talk seems a little foolish, but I like to 

 speak to the eye as well as to the ear. I want to impress on your minds 

 it is no trouble to make a mud hole in a wash basin; a little earth ana 

 water and judicious stirring will make a mud hole. Every one of the 

 roads in Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio where they do not use a split log, 

 every one of those roads contain a greater or less number of basins. 

 Some are the size of a wash basin; some the size of a wash tub; and 

 some are larger than the biggest stock tank you ever saw. They are an 

 made on this order. The reason why they stay there, the reason they 

 are mud holes, is because they are built on the plan of a wash basin. 

 Every one of these mud holes is a wash basin in the fact that it is a 

 receptacle full of water; and every one of them is a mud hole because 

 of the fact that the outside of the mud hole is water tight. That doesn't 

 occur to all of you, but it is a fact, that every one of these mud holes is 

 water tight. Isn't it a fact that you have seen mu dholes on the top of 

 hills? Haven't you seen mud holes within 6 or 8 or 15 feet of a bridge, 

 a six or eight foot drop within fifteen feet. Haven't you got in your 

 neighborhood mud holes just on the other side of the bridge, where there 

 is a level place and a mud hole right there, and don't you drive to one 

 side and then on the other side? It is water tight. The only way the 

 water can get out of that basin is for it to evaporate; it takes it a long 

 time. 



How many of you would try to make a mud hole on the top of that 

 wash basin? (the basin is turned up-side down). It is still of the same 

 material, the same wash basin. Wouldn't it be more difficult to make a 

 mud hole on top of that? The split log drag turns the wash basin up-side 



