58 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



What is it that spoils our roads in Iowa? It is the excess of water 

 that gives us our bad roads. While I have no quarrel with my friends- 

 who are advocating these macadamized roads, it is perhaps right and 

 for the best that we keep in our minds an ideal system, such as they 

 advocate with such enthusiasm; I admire them for doing it. I hav& 

 thought that we can provide some means or some way of getting the 

 surplus water out of the soil, out of our highways; getting the surface 

 properly rounded; getting our ditche? properly opened, to dispose of the 

 excess water, I think we will have a magnificent road system for the 

 present needs of the population. Perhaps time — and it may not be a 

 great time — I am pleased to believe that President Moore is something^ 

 of a prophet — that we may have all these things in twenty-five years, 

 and that Burlington, Hedrick, Oskaloosa may become suburbs of Des 

 Moines; but in the meantime, while we are waiting for that, I think the 

 proper thing for us to do, is what we can, and I believe the main thing 

 before us is to properly drain our roads. 



Let me give you a few instunces: One mile north of Hedi'ick, my 

 home town, where the iiighwny makes a descent south of Sugar creek,, 

 the road follows down into a ravine. For years that ravine, during wet 

 seasons, in the early spring time, was almost impassable. During e\^ery 

 rain: eYery time the frost went out of the grcamd, it v.'aH a mud Iiole. 

 After a long time and after much persuasiop, we inducec the T-oad 

 supervisor to try and tile it. He leveled up the surface and placed four- 

 inch tile up close to the wheel tracks. That road, one of the worst 

 pieces of road we had in that whole neighborhood, became one of the- 

 very best in that neighborhood. It is today, and has been for almost 

 fifteen years, an ideal wheel track; it became hard and compact; the 

 lain or frost seems to have but little effect on it. 



About three miles east of Hedrick, Rural Route No. 2, there is a 

 stretch of road on this route which was practically abandoned last 

 spring; it was almost impossible for any one to drive along that road. 

 The trustees^ finally came to the rescue. Tile was placed along the side 

 of the road, and in just two days after that tile was placed there the rural 

 carrier and other people were back on the highway, and the trouble 

 ended. 



My experience and what I am talking about, refers to southeastern 

 Iowa, where the blanket of the glacial clay is deeper, and the streams 

 have eaten deeper channels. With us the road problem is much more 

 difiicult than where there is a large amount of sand. In that section of 

 the State are developed what we call spouty places. These places be- 

 came so bad that something had to be done or trafiic be suspended. I 

 do not know of a single instance where tiling was tried without the most 

 satisfactory results. It is well understood that a tiled field may be in 

 excellent condition to work, while the same field untiled may be abso- 

 lutely miry. I know" of a field west of Hedrick, one third of which was 

 tiled from the east end. A team could pass along the com rows towards 

 the west, but as soon as the west two thirds was reached, there was 

 simply an oozing frog mire, over which a loose horse could only pass 

 by a plunging effort. 



