HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 843 
tled for one hundred and fifty years, they have increased 50 per cent 
in the last fifteen years. 
Mr. Dover. Undoubtedly. 
The gentleman from Iowa seems to have it in his mind that if any- 
thing at all is done it must be done with stone road at a cost of $3,000 
amile. That is not what Iam contending for at all. I have already 
stated that we produced the sand and clay roads in the South, as 
Captain Lamb has called attention to hete, at a cost of probably $300 
a mile, and they are exceedingly good. 
Mr. Hauecren. How do you propose to build such roads outside of 
the ordinary grading? . 
Mr. Doper. We mix the sand and clay. If it is a clay road we 
spread sand on, and if it isa sand road we spread clay on, until the 
whole thing is mixed to the point of puddling. We add from time to 
time, according as observation reveals the necessity for it, enough 
sand to take up the excess in moisture. 
Mr. Haucen. That is what the ordinary road supervisor does at the 
present time; that is no improvement on the present system. 
Mr. Dopex. The ordinary supervisor does not do that way. If it 
is a clay road he uses clay; if it is a sand road he uses sand. We haul 
the sand on the clay road and haul clay on the sand road, and use such 
a mixture that it becomes a consolidated mass that is hard and dura- 
ble. It is really quite a discovery and very helpful. Now, we believe 
that we shall be able to take clay, that is so common in your country, 
-and burn that into angular fragments without the necessity of mold- 
ing as they do for brick, and make a substance that is practically as 
hard as brick, which can be used on the surface of these roads and 
diminish the cost very greatly. We are not contending that every 
road should be improved with stone. 
Mr. Haucen. Is not that being done by the railroads at the present 
time? 
Mr. Doper. It has been done for ballast, but it has never been done 
on any common road that I know of for common traffic. It should 
be done. That is a case where I think it would be warrantable for 
the committee to authorize the entire building by the Government; 
because you can not find any community, probably, that would be 
willing to go into anything that is so much of an experiment as that is. 
Mr. Apams. Let me ask you about this machinery once more, Mr. 
Dodge; is your machinery given to you by the manufacturers / 
Mr. Dope. They give us the loan. They do not give us the 
machinery. 
The Cuarrman. They furnish the machinery and allow a man to 
accompany it, and we pay the man. 
Mr. Apams. They do that for advertising purposes? 
Mr. Dover. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Apams. Would you not prefer to buy your machinery and select 
such as you thought was best? 
Mr. Dopesr. I think that is a good plan—-that I be allowed to do it. 
The Cuarrman. That would be an advertisement of certain kinds of 
machinery. 
Mr. Apams. At the same time it would give these gentlemen an 
opportunity to go into the market and get the very best there was, and 
not depend upon the charity of machinery manufacturers. 
Mr. Dopee. I recommended that that should be done, but I must say 
