1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
643 
WHITE ROADS IN BLACK SOIL. 
ROAD BUILDING IN THE PRAIRIE BOTTOMS. 
How to “ Get Out of the Mud.” 
Part II. 
What can we do for those farmers who do not see 
how in the world they can ever get out of the mud, 
since they have neither gravel nor bowlders ? I have 
been inquiring during the past few winters as I vis¬ 
ited different counties attending farmers’ institutes, 
and heard their road talks, how they build roads of 
crushed stone, and the cost. I learn that, at Bedford, 
Greencastle, Salem, and many other points in south¬ 
ern Indiana, and at Rensselaer, Logansport, Kokomo, 
and along the Wabash to Attica in northern Indiana, 
and at Momence, Ill , thqre are immense deposits of 
hard limestone which is accessible and makes the best 
sort of road material. In several places they are now 
quarrying and crushing stone for street improvement 
and pikes. Putnam County has, in recent years, built 
over 300 miles of stone pikes. Green County has 
built many pikes of stone costing 65 to 80 cents a 
yard f. o. b. at the quarry. I was told by an agent 
that Lawrence County built over 100 miles of stone 
road in 1896. Whether they built it so fast or not, it 
shows that the crusher has supplemented the gravel 
banks with unlimited amounts of the very best road 
material, and the low freight rates have brought 
these rocky hills and gravel deposits within 
reach of the fertile prairies. 
Many wideawake farmers will be surprised 
to learn of recently-made machinery which will 
crush bowlders and broken stone at the as¬ 
tounding rate of 150 tons in 10 hours, or 12 to 
15 car-loads a day. This costs (not counting 
quarrying, etc ) about two cents per ton, or $3 
per day, and requires one-horse power for each 
ton per hour. A yard of crushed stone weighs 
about 2,660 pounds. Now let’s see what it 
will cost to build a mile of gravel pike 100 miles 
from Mattoon, 111. One railroad reports to 
the United States Bureau of Road Inquiry, 
that its cars are loaded with gravel at Mat- 
toon at the cost for labor of nine cents a yard, 
or about $1 50 for a car-load of 16 to 18 yards. 
If 10 cents will buy the gravel, it will cost f. o. b. 
at Mattoon, 19 cents a yard. Replies from many 
railroad companies to the Bureau of Road In¬ 
quiry speak of reducing local rates heavily in 
favor of road material, and several roads 
frankly offer to transport it at actual cost or 
even less. One-half cent per ton a mile is, also, 
often mentioned. This would cost about 65 
cents a yard per 100 miles. Add 19 cents, first 
cost, and we have gravel on any switch within 
100 miles ready for teams, at 84 cents per yard, 
and for shorter distances, still less. If we use 
four yards to the rod, this will cost $1,075 a 
mile. The first mile’s haul should not cost over 
15 cents a yard, or $192. This makes the total 
cost for purchase, freight and hauling gravel 
on to a mile of road 100 miles from the gravel 
deposit, $1,267, or about $1 a yard of gravel. 
The distributing, of course, we don’t feel as 
much as cash, and the entire cost exclusive of 
the grade, is less than $1 an acre for the land 
a mile wide on each side of the road. We count 
it $2 an acre for the front 160 acres 80 rods wide, 
$1 for the second 160, 50 cents for the third, and 
25 cents for the fourth, making $1,200. A farmer 
who owns 80 acres of land can surely afford to pay 
$160 partly in work for the privilege of a good pike 
in front of his home. I might add that it is quite 
common for the county commissioners to pay one- 
half or all the cost of the gravel. 
Where gravel can’t be had, broken stone makes a 
better, more durable pike at an increased cost of 
about half for material. Let us figure a little. The 
Wabash, Chester and Western Railroad offers an in¬ 
exhaustible supply of limestone of superior quality, 
crushed, screened and f. o. b. on their line for 32% 
cents per yard. This is only 13% cents more than 
gravel, it makes a much more durable road, and may 
be used more sparingly. Most reports on prices of 
crushed stone f. o. b. at the quarry are higher than 
the above. The Worthington stone costs 65 to 85 cents. 
One contractor, of large experience in various 
sections, says that he expects the first cost of crushed 
stone to be about equal to a three miles’ haul of 
gravel. A contractor from Bedford says, “The Oolite 
limestone there is hard to quarry, hard to crush, and 
costs 50 to 60 cent3 per yard ” There is a great differ¬ 
ence in the fracture of stone. The Rensselaer lime¬ 
stone cubes the best. Many quarries crush into slabs 
and dust so much as to be wasteful and not pick as 
smooth and solid. Other rock does not contain enough 
cement to cause the pieces to unite in a hard road. 
The above estimates of the cost of stone are based 
on four yards per rod. I presume that this is as light 
a coat as we dare use in black land, especially in the 
valleys. Mr. Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, in his Bul¬ 
letin No. 15, on Good Roads in Pennsylvania, says 
that, in France, they are greatly reducing the amount 
of stone per rod ; that they have abandoned the prac¬ 
tice of excavating and filling with broken (coarse) 
stone as a foundation, and that they now grade the 
dirt so as to throw the water to the side ditches, and 
cover with five or six inches (seven feet wide) of finely 
broken stone. This is only two yards to the rod. It 
may do with stone instead of gravel on a firm dirt 
bottom, and on roads that have light travel like our 
cross roads. They claim that two-fifths of the Routes 
Nationales have a thickness of less than four inches, 
and only one eighth of the French roads exceed eight 
inches. These roads are well cared for, kept honed, 
and every incipient rut is filled before the wheels dig 
through and mix the dirt with it. The French, also, 
use wide tires, a practice which Americans are sin¬ 
gularly slow to adopt. To make the back axle longer 
than the front, would seem awkward to us, but there 
is absolutely no excuse for two-inch tires. We had 
one wagon hauling gravel last year with 1%-inch 
tires. It cut out our ruts and made us lots of trouble. 
Men loading behind it would growl and say, “ My 
load pulls one-third harder after that wagon has 
passed.” We shall forbid narrow tires after this. 
Experiments show that, to draw 2,240 pounds on a 
good, level dirt road, requires 200 pounds ; the same 
on a gravel road requires 143 pounds, while on a Mac¬ 
adam road it requires but 65 pounds. Enterprise is 
the word. A road a few miles from here has gravel 
every half mile and no hills, and can’t be piked, 
while on the other side of town, they hauled gravel 
four miles at a cost of 90 cents a yard, and built pikes. 
Improved machinery has made it possible for all of 
us to erijoy good roads ; but we must awaken to our 
opportunity, and educate public opinion ; after that, 
the road question will be quickly solved. We are a 
new young nation; our extra force has been absorbed 
in clearing land and building railroads and homes. 
Now let us turn our energy and genius to our mud 
roads, and cover them with stone. The best thing in 
the world is man. The best thing in man is mind. 
The highest purpose in life is the formation of char¬ 
acter, the development of mind and heart. Isolation 
means starvation, undevelopment. Let us connect 
our homes by a network of good roads, enjoy greater 
conveniences to market, become more active factors 
in public affairs, and live in touch with the inspiring, 
helpful life of the world. e. h. collins 
Central Indiana. 
Every fruit grower should own The American Fruit 
Culturist, by John J. Thomas. It is the standard book 
on fruit culture. The price is $3.50. We sell it—as 
well as all other books. Our new book catalogue (sent 
free) gives a list of books on agricultural topics. Books 
are tools. Don’t try to think without tools. 
THE AMERICAN HOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
ITS RECENT MEETING AT COLUMBUS, O. 
( Concluded.) 
Mr. G. B. Brackett, of Iowa, the newly appointed 
Chief of the Division of Pomology of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, read a paper con¬ 
cerning What Should be the Relation Between the 
American Pomologieal Society and the Division of 
Pomology. He showed how they should work to¬ 
gether, and the good results that would follow. Their 
cooperation had already resulted in the harmonious 
action of the two in regard to the nomenclature of 
fruits. The revision and printing of the catalogue of 
fruits by the Society is now being done under the 
direction of the Division, and will soon issue from 
the Government press as a special bulletin. The 
geographical division of the country into fruit dis¬ 
tricts was, also, stated as having been done by the 
Division. H. E Van Deman added some remarks 
regarding the history of the Division of Pomology 
and its purposes and possibilities, both independently 
and in connection with the society. He said that his 
first conception of the founding of the Division oc¬ 
curred in his mind while at the New Orleans Exposi¬ 
tion in 1884; that the idea was gladly received by Hon. 
N. J. Colman, at St. Louis, in April, 1885, when it was 
suggested to him, he being at the head of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture at that time. The Division 
was formally established by him July 1, 1886. 
As the first Chief of the Division, Mr. Van Deman 
said that one of the plans he laid at the start 
was that the Division and the Pomologieal 
Society should work in harmony. Another plan 
was that the catalogue of the fruits recom¬ 
mended by the Society and that of the Division 
should exactly accord in nomenclature, and be 
published by the Government. To this end, he 
had Mr. T. T. Lyon, of Michigan, the chairman 
of the Society’s Committee on Revision of Cata¬ 
logue, commissioned as a special agent of the 
Division at a fair salary, and charged him with 
the duty of devoting himself to the work of re¬ 
vising the fruit lists. This he has almost com¬ 
pleted at this date. The publication of the lists 
would come naturally, and did come, and the 
publication of the entire proceedings, Mr. Van 
Deman hoped for, and had striven to accomplish 
while in office. Dr. F. M. Hexamer, of New 
York, and Mr. C. L. Watrous, of Iowa, spoke in 
the most hopeful and confident way in regard to 
the continued and mutually helpful working of 
the two organizations. 
Mr. W. A. Taylor, Assistant Pomologist of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, read 
a very complete paper on What Shall We Seek 
Abroad ? He gave a long list of species of fruits 
tnat had not yet been brought here from foreign 
countries that gave promise of being success¬ 
fully grown, among which were several of the 
chestnuts, grapes, raspberries, plums, guavas, 
etc. While some of them would almost certainly 
do poorly or fail altogether, some would prove 
worthy of all the trouble and expense. Mr. Van 
Deman spoke of having knowledge of several 
varieties of the persimmon in China and Corea 
that were yet unimported, and of reputed hard¬ 
iness. He, also, had heard of many fruits in the 
higher lands of Central Africa, that would likely 
be useful in our southern States ; and that he 
had repeatedly been informed by intelligent natives 
of Armenia that there were, in that country, many 
choice varieties of the apricot, plum, peach, fig and 
quince, which might prove better than some of our 
standard kinds. He thought that our foreign min¬ 
isters and consuls should be on the alert for all such 
things, and be ready to assist our people in getting 
them. 
Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, came 
into the hall to pay his respects to the society. He 
made a short but most sensible and sympathetic 
speech. He said that he was ready to back up any¬ 
thing that Pomologist Brackett should promise, and 
to the last dollar that he had to use in any legitimate 
way. He left the impression that he is the friend of 
pomology. 
Mr. W. J. Green, of Ohio, read a paper on Spraying 
Fruits and Its Present Status. He said that many 
were discouraged about spraying, as they had seen as 
good crops in some cases on trees and plants not 
sprayed as on those that had been sprayed. This 
seemed to them especially true of the larvae of the 
Codling moth in the apple and pear. But Mr. Green 
stated emphatically that, at the State Experiment 
Station the crop this year will pay for all that spray¬ 
ing will cost for the next 10 years. Mr. W. B. Alwood, 
of Virginia, was equally positive in his belief in the 
benefits of spraying. He told about an orchard of 30 
acres of the Winesap apple that had been a practical 
failure for 10 years past, that this year had been thor- 
COLUMBUS. Fig 268. 
TRIUMPH. Fig. 269. 
GRACILLA. Fig. 270. KEEPSAKE. Fig. 271. 
SOME OF THE NEWER GOOSEBERRIES. See Rubalisms. 
