740 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
to drain well, always drag from the center out, and every clod and stone 
will be run out of the road, and the road will be as smooth as a pave- 
ment, and it looks nice and is delightful to drive over. If a light snow 
falls and is likely to melt soon, go one round with drag and run this 
snow off of the center of the road, and when the sun shines on it a little 
bit it will be as dry as ever. 
In the spring of the year when the snow melts and the roads begin to 
thaw, take the drag and run the mud and slush off the road, and it will 
thaw out just as a point is dry where the snow has blown off. 
If you will keep the sides of the road well draggea so the ditches will 
be filled in, in winter, the snow will blow^ off of the center of road and 
you have a nice place to drive with wagons and buggies, and snow will 
lodge at the sides of the road and will be nice for sleds and sleighs. 
A few weeks ago I experimented with one hundred and forty feet of 
hill road, the ditch on about forty feet of the steepest part of the hill 
was three and a half feet deep and the rest was two feet deep. I took the 
plow and commenced at the outside and threw the dirt in the ditches. 
It was very hard and it took me one hour to plow the one hundred and 
forty feet. I commenced at outside again and threw the dirt same as 
before. It took twenty minutes this time, and I kept on the same until 
I had plowed it four times. It took two hours. I spent one half hour 
throwing the clods from the forty feet into the ditches and when I got 
through, the one hundred feet was six inches the lowest, and the forty 
feet was about one foot, and the cost was less than one dollar. The first 
hard rain that comes will melt the clods and clean out the ditches and I 
will give it a dragging and it will be in fine shape, and about one foot of 
the steepest part of the hill gone, and all together it will not cost over one 
dollar. 
Commence right. Use a system, and you can have good roads with 
very little cost. Did you ever think of the difference of the cost between 
a narrow and a wide road, in making and maintaining it. A twenty foot 
road to the foot, there is about fifteen cubic feet of dirt; twenty-two foot 
road, eighteen cubic feet; twenty-five foot road, about one cubic yard. 
A thirty foot road, about thirty-six cubic feet; thirty-five foot road, two 
cubic yards; forty foot road, three cubic yards. See the difference. A 
twenty foot road is wide enough for a by-road where there is very little 
travel, and is easily kept up, and twenty-five to thirty, at the very out- 
side, near the large towns and cities. 
SPEECH OF HON. WILLIAM SULZER. 
(The House being in committee of the whole house on the state of the 
Union and having under consideration the bill (H. R. 1438) to provide 
revenue, equalize duties, and encourage the industries of the United 
States, and for other purposes.) 
Mr Chairman: For years I have been trying to secure national aid in 
the building of good roads throughout the land. National aid for good 
roads is demanded by the people, and the question will grow more and 
more important as the seasons come and go until the demands of the peo- 
ple are granted by the national government. 
