Vol. LIX. No. 2647 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 20, 1900. 
II PER YEAR. 
MAKING WHITE ROADS IN INDIANA. 
GREAT VALUE OF A GRAVEL PIT. 
Land on Smooth Roads Not for Sale. 
GOOD ROADS AND LAND.—The remarkable mul¬ 
tiplication of pikes in central Indiana is worthy of 
study. Surely the vast rural population of the 
United States who use only dirt roads do not know 
how the other half lives. One can hardly drive any 
distance without using a pike. These gravel roads 
are all free of toll and maintained by the county. 
The writer once asked a farmer near Pendleton what 
land was worth in that section. “It can’t be bought,” 
he said, hastily. “Well, why?” “Because we have 
good land underlaid with gravel and level; it is well 
fenced, we have good buildings, our church is handy, 
and a good school, we are near a good town with 
every facility for travel and telegraph and ’phone 
service, and burn natural gas for fuel and lights. 
Now, what more can mortal want? We are as con¬ 
tented and in fact as near Heaven as we expect to 
get, in this life.” Let 
me repeat the question, 
“What more can we 
wish?” They have a 
good horticultural so¬ 
ciety which furnishes a 
social lap dinner once a 
month, to which people 
come as far as 15 miles. 
They have also a read¬ 
ing circle for the young. 
When we think of these 
many privileges we must 
remember that they are 
most all based on good 
roads at all times of year, 
and good land, with an 
enterprising people, 
Pikes were first built 
here as an investment, 
and toll was collected on 
travel. The next step 
was to build them by 
taxation. One secured a 
majority of the freehold¬ 
ers within one mile of 
the road and “forced” u 
through. This method 
had lots of red tape, and 
was expensive, but it was 
the only way practical 
until public opinion had 
been educated to the 
value of the improve¬ 
ment. I am informed of 
one miserly wealthy farmer who had a muddy road 
when it did rain, who claimed that the tax for a pike 
was an outrage and a robbery. He fought the pro¬ 
posed pike at considerable cost, but could not stop it. 
Finally the stream of gravel was dropped past his 
home, covering a long strip of muddy black land. 
He paid the taxes, of course, which were consider¬ 
able, but was so stubborn that he persisted in driv¬ 
ing two miles out of his way for two years, over a 
dirt road sometimes almost impassable, rather than 
drive over the free pike that his enterprising neigh¬ 
bors had forced upon him. But despite many similar 
men who had to be forced out of the ruts, the whole 
system of free pikes has grown wonderfully popular. 
Anyone croaking against them is now simply smiled 
at as a mossback, and has no influence whatever. 
WHITE ROADS.—I attended farmers’ institutes in 
southwest counties last Winter, and the wet Winter 
weather had made their black dirt roads so muddy 
that horses fairly waded through them. Their feet 
would pop and splash as they struggled along. It 
was a sharp contrast to our hard roads, that Winter 
rain make a little sloppy, but not muddy. They in¬ 
troduced me as on the programme to talk on building 
white roads without gravel, which, of course, meant 
stone roads, and in the introduction said that “We 
will now hear from a man who lives where they have 
golden roads.” They could not have spoken truer, as 
the object lesson before us indicated. As I stood on 
the street and watched families driving in through the 
mud with buggy and horse muddy from bottom to 
top, one could only think that central Indiana surely 
has golden roads. I told them that I wished to im¬ 
press three facts upon them. 1, That they are in the 
mud. 2, That they could get out cheaper than they 
thought. 3, That a revival of the spirit of public en¬ 
terprise and an appreciation of the value of good roads 
was all they needed. They had no gravel, but plenty 
of limestone, and the improved crushing machinery 
had vastly cheapened the first cost of stone. Freight 
rates had been greatly reduced, and many roads will 
haul stone for road improvement at actual cost. These 
new conditions make the construction of stone roads 
in their section fully practical. Under former condi¬ 
tions it was too costly; both breaking by hand and 
transportation were costly items. They could now 
build a stone pike on the first three miles from a rail¬ 
road at the total cost of $1,800 a mile. Much of this 
money the taxpayers along the line could earn with 
their teams hauling or grading. 
HOW TO START.—I impressed the thought that no 
one section can expect every kind of natural advan¬ 
tage. In those Wabash River bottoms they have very 
productive lands unbroken by the hills in which we in 
central Indiana find our gravel. This fertility enables 
them to import their road material and enjoy good 
roads together with their fertile lands. I have been 
much pleased to learn last week at the State Fair that 
they have begun building those stone roads. All they 
need is to secure a sample of a few miles each way 
from the centers and the object lesson will soon win 
respect for and loyalty to the idea of improvement 
in this locality. 
The great popularity of improved roads in central 
Indiana has made it possible to build them now by 
subscription. A meeting of those interested is called, 
and an executive committee is appointed, who write 
out an agreement without any assistance of an attor¬ 
ney. Then they divide the line and each one solicits 
subscriptions. These are often expressed in dollars 
with the agreement in the article that the subscriber 
reserves the right to haul out all but 10 per cent of 
the entire amount. This small cash fund is to pay 
shovelers or any extras that may come up, and it is 
commonly not drawn on extensively. The county 
usually pays for the gravel and the wages of the shov¬ 
elers. It also puts in all bridges and pays for sewer 
pipe for small streams. Part of the subscription is 
by those having no teams, and they shovel or put in 
the sewer pipe or help spread gravel on the road. In 
fact, in a level country like this, where few hills are 
more than 20 feet high, we do not need a surveyor. 
Experience shows that we have usually cut such hills 
lower than the law requires. Personal interest in¬ 
duces this. When the 
road is being built there 
is a sort of pride in being 
on time, and some work 
hard for the honor of be¬ 
ing “first in the pit in the 
morning.” Sometimes 
this last is carried so far 
that wagons will actually 
enter the pit soon after 
midnight and have their 
allowance finished a little 
after noon. Fig. 264 il¬ 
lustrates the appearance 
of my gravel pit when it 
is full of strong, active 
farmers with fat, stout 
teams loading wagons for 
the very work that I am 
now describing. These 
teams took out as many 
as 250 to 300 yards of 
gravel a day for some 
time. The road, of course, 
got very dusty, and the 
teams going and coming, 
passing and repassing, 
filled the road for miles, 
till it was hard to get by 
with a buggy. They come 
jollying into the shady 
woodland and shovel like 
Turks till they are loaded 
and off again. 
A ROAD PICNIC.—They 
tell stories and try their horses’ pulling qualities, and 
laugh and play and crack jokes at a great rate. One 
favorite amusement with young men who had heavy 
fat teams was to show that they knew how to pull. 
Sometimes when on the pik~ with 1% yard they would 
stop and place a rail in front of the hind wheels. This 
required a steady persistent pull and many horses that 
pull fairly well will not start a heavy load when it is 
a dead start. Each trip they would secure a larger 
rail, till the teams were sorted out and some fellow 
was on top with “the best team,” to the annoyance of 
his envious neighbors. No one should think this un¬ 
merciful, if it was a little wild, because most of those 
horses are attended to as carefully as a child, and 
bedded and fed well. They are sleek and fat, and it is 
a common expression that a man will fight over the 
abuse of a horse as quickly as over a personal insult. 
I remember well when certain neighborhood roads 
“came in,” as they were filled with the thought of 
victory, and happy to think the long, hard fight 
against muu was at an end, their fun and jolly jokes 
STRENUOUS LIFE IN A HOOSIER GRAVEL PIT. Fig. 264 . 
