72l' 
T jrfLS RURAL, 3S1 KW-YORKE^ 
June 22, 
GOOD ADVICE TO CAMPERS. 
“To him who in the Love of Nature holds 
Comn.union with her visible forms, 
She speaks a various language.” 
An expression of a general truth by a 
great poet. It may not be given to all to 
reduce such language to familiar idiom, or 
to embroider its revolutions with poetic 
wreaths, yet to most human beings there is 
a message in the sibilant ripple of waters 
and the "rustle of waving trees._ The birds 
sing it and flowers nod in admiration. It 
must be an imperfect person who does not 
interpret to his own joy these voices and 
lie down in the lap of earth with a restful 
feeling. If there be such exceptions they 
miss a chief beatitude of living. They can 
only experiment with such parodies as so¬ 
ciety has invented to stimulate and simu¬ 
late. To such 1 have no admonition, but 
to those who “hold communion with her 
visible forms” I have a word to say. In 
the broadest sense I commend to young 
men and women intimacy with terrestrial 
things as elevating, healthy and pleasant; 
not to produce brain storm but serene rest 
and renovation. Dirt is the cleanest pro¬ 
duct of nature, and a moral and physical 
antiseptic. It is good to stand under the 
arch of the trees and drink the sweet air 
and smile with the beautiful things about. 
One may then sing “Nearer my God to 
Thee” without profanation. The poet 
dreams of it, the Psalmist sublimely exalts 
it, and the novelist hovers over it with 
many a sentimental flutter. 
From the bosom of nature all life 
springs, and in the end mingles with its 
atoms. Then the scars are soon hidden 
and the endless procession of beauty moves 
on. For a long lifetime this “various lan¬ 
guage" has appealed to me. It led me be¬ 
side still waters and toward shady nooks 
and restful camps. I am inclined to allude 
to certain practical points to help those 
who wish to explore in like manner. In 
justification of this presumption, if it be 
presuming, I offer large experience. Brought 
to Illinois in extreme youth, that vicinage 
was sparsedly settled and teemed with wild 
life. All lived close to nature and were 
not ashamed of it. With an interest born 
of a pioneer ancestry, such time as could 
be borrowed or stolen from hard work was 
used to explore streams, wander over 
prairies and through woods in pursuit of 
the spoil lavishly pi’ovided for such as I. 
Later came the Civil War. and this old 
baldheaded man. then a vigorous youth, 
took the contract of putting down the Re¬ 
bellion. It took longer than the optimism 
of boyhood anticipated. When through 
with this strenuous job, and several of its 
missiles through me, every variety of 
bivouac and camp had been used which 
endless Yankee ingenuity could devise. 
Later, and for 40 years as opportunity 
offered, the field sports of many States 
were tested. No year passed without its 
camp experience and intimate fraternizing 
with wild life. Many successful incidents 
are recalled—the unsuccessful ones are for¬ 
gotten. For pleasure or from necessity all 
methods were tried, and whether successful 
or otherwise quickened life and bounding 
health followed. Now that age and wounds 
have relegated this whilom fiery youth to 
the category of “has-beens,” and when 
time has pushed from behind so he can see 
over the border to the “great beyond," a 
little garrulity may be excused. May not 
this old man, the remnant of the youth 
spoken of, talk to the “boys” and from 
his experience presume to tell them how 
to approach nature in its "visible forms” 
and perhaps instruct them on some points 
how in a greater measure to enjoy it with¬ 
out learning in the uncertain school of 
personal experience? 
A treatise might be written covering the 
details of camp life and living. Be that 
as it may, neither space nor present in¬ 
clination admits an attempt at length. It 
is apparent to all those who have tried it 
that the keeping of food in good order is, 
without ice, one of the most vexatious 
questions appertaining to camp life, and 
any camp near enough to neighbors to get 
ice is a mollyeodle imitation of the real 
thing. By accident 1 found complete ven¬ 
tilation solved the problem and interfered 
with the heretofore vested rights of flies, 
vermin and all crawling things. The first 
effort in this direction without great ex¬ 
pectation, but astonishing results, was to 
take an old flour barrel without heads, 
which happened within reach, through 
which a rope was run and swung up to a 
tree limb in a shady place, and over each 
end was thrown a piece of old mosquito 
bar. By this simple means entire immun¬ 
ity from vermin followed and food kept 
almost as well as in a refrigerator. Blund¬ 
ering upon such a practical result I then 
for more permanent use made a cupboard 
out of an old shoe box, ventilating all 
sides by openings covered with wire gauze. 
Inside suitable shelves were placed, easily 
removed. At the top an eye-bolt was in¬ 
serted and the affair hung free from the 
ground to a tree in thick shade, and thus 
without cost or much mechanical skill one 
of the unpleasant features of camp life was 
eliminated. Any kind of food—fish, onions, 
butter, etc., could be placed upon separate 
shelves and no mixture of odors or flavors 
followed, and all insect life was shut out. 
I suppose I have tried and used about 
every appliance for camp fire and camp 
cooking known to civil or military life. The 
average camp lire is a diabolical contri¬ 
vance to burn the fingers and fill the eyes 
with smoke. Its propensity to upset things 
generally and generate profanity I shrink 
from describing, because decent language 
has its limitations. This supreme trouble 
was conquered by the simple means now 
to be described. It is only three fiat iron 
bars about 3% feet long, one inch wide 
and a half inch thick. The ones in use by 
me were made from au old buggy tire, and 
have been so used for 25 years, and are 
as good as new—I wish I was. A con¬ 
venient. way to arrange them is to take 
four or five bricks and lay them end to 
end edgewise. At each end and at right 
angles in like manner place a brick or two. 
This will form a parallelogram open at 
one side. Upon this place the flat bars, 
resting at each end about six inches above 
the ground. You will then have a neat 
little furnace with a closed back, and upon 
which any utensil will rest without danger 
of tipping. 1 have suggested brick only 
because if at hand they are convenient. 
Flat stones or sods are an easy means of 
arriving at the same end. If intending to 
remain any length of time in one place it 
is an advantage to have this furnace ele¬ 
vated to a suitable height to render stoop¬ 
ing unnecessary. This will appeal to all 
obese and lazy persons, “one of whom I am 
which.” This may be easily done by mak¬ 
ing a pen about three or four feet long 
and two feet deep of any old boards or 
poles, fastening the corners with stakes. 
Fill this with earth well tramped down 
and you have a platform upon which to 
build the fire. Thus the oldest and laziest 
can sit by on a camp-stool within reach 
of all the epicurean viands needed for a 
meal, and read his paper at the same time 
without serious complications, while coffee 
pot, frying pan and kettle sit contentedly 
and sing the song so grateful to hungry 
campers. Not more than half the time and 
not one-fourth of the fuel is needed as 
commonly used about camp fires. The heat 
is applied direct where needed, using wood 
a few inches long, such as may be procured 
from any brush heap. Much smoke is kept 
from going into the eyes. The use of these 
two appliances will do away with at least 
one-halt of the usual vexations of camp 
life. They are so satisfactory that they 
have been used for more than a quarter of 
a century and all elaborate and patent 
“fixings” discarded. 
Now that age has relaxed the muscles, 
dimmed the eyes and polished the head of 
tiie writer so that like an old coon dog, he 
can only lie by the fire and growl at the 
pups, these suggestions are offered to the 
younger generation. The hope is that here 
and there one may be induced, by such 
easy means, to appreciate nature, and “hold 
communion with her visible forms" with a 
satisfaction nowhere else to be found It 
is perhaps unnecessary to add that this 
contemplates hugging nature with the bark 
on. I have no advice to give the camper 
who wears silk stockings and yearns for a 
mea 1 in courses. I have not fraternized 
with the dnde fisher and hunter. 
Illinois. LUCIEN B. CROOKER. 
THE COST OF COUNTRY ROADS. 
Please advise me as to the cost of build¬ 
ing a pike road, also as to cost of maintain¬ 
ing same before and since the advent of 
the automobile. Last Saturday a vote in 
Precinct No. 1 of this (Hunt) county was 
taken as to bonding the county for 3400,000 
for the purpose of building pikes in Pre¬ 
cinct No. 1. 1 he bond issue failed to carry. 
I understand they will have another elec¬ 
tion later on, therefore am desirous of ob¬ 
taining all information possible as to good 
roads. The soil in this county is very deep 
black waxy, no rock, no gravel; all' mate¬ 
rial would have to be brought by rail pos¬ 
sibly from "Central Texas, say 150 miles 
Greenville, Tex. t f 
Conditions vary so much in various 
States and even in different counties of 
the same State that it is impossible to give 
an adequate reply to these questions with¬ 
out going into the whole problem thor¬ 
oughly. The cost of building the road de¬ 
pends upon many factors, such as the cost 
of labor, availability of materials, the kind 
of road, the width, the depth of surfacing, 
the cost of bridges and culverts, the traflie 
expected and the climate, particularly as 
regards rainfall and freezing. There are 
five distinct kinds of road construction 
used in this country for pikes—earth roads 
sand-clay, gravel, macadam and bituminous 
macadam. In Texas there is also consid¬ 
erably- more than a hundred miles of shell 
roads. 
tion of roads. The surface is loosened by 
the tangential push of the tire as it grips 
the road. Then there is much slip of the 
tire on the road and the rubber picks up 
much of the small stuff. In a test under 
unusually heavy traffic of unusually- heavy 
motor vehicles a stretch of gravel road cost 
over .$2,000 per mile for five months’ main¬ 
tenance as against a negligible sum before 
the circumstances which caused the heavy 
motor traflie. For roads requiring merely 
occasional scraping and * dragging to keep 
them in good repair, .$5 per year per mile 
is an average figure. As to the distribution 
of cost, in New York and a number of 
other States, the trunk lines are built at 
the cost of the State while other roads 
are built at joint expense. Usually the 
State takes charge of the work and p$ys 
50 per cent of the cost, the county pay¬ 
ing 35 per cent and the town 15 per cent. 
The maintenance is also divided up. 
R. p. C. 
THE COST OF GROWING RAISINS. 
I thought perhaps that the cost; of grow¬ 
ing grapes for raisins might be of suffi¬ 
cient interest to your eastern readers for 
publication. We have .in the San Joaquin 
Valley 80.000 acres in grapes, 60.000 being 
raisin grapes, mostly Muscats, the remain¬ 
der in wine and table grapes. The costs 
given are counting one ton of raisins to 
the acre, that is four tons of grapes, as it 
takes four pounds of grapes to make one 
pound of raisins. One ton is a little above 
the average. 
Pruning .$2.90 
Raking brush .10 
Burning brush .60 
Plowing twice, once each way-. 3.00 
Harrowing . 75 
Oultivating . 75 
Shoveling under vines. 1.00 
Suckering and cutting off tops.75 
Sulphur, two applications.50 
Putting on sulphur twice.50 
Grading vineyard . 15 
Distributing trays .35 
Picking . 8.75 
Turning once .30 
Stacking . 40 
Packing in sweat boxes. 1.40 
Hauling to packing house. 1.10 
Gathering trays and piling.40 
Taxes . 2.00 
Interest at 7 per cent at .$300 an acre.21.00 
Water tax. which is very low.63 
Depreciation on trays and boxes. 4.00 
Total actual cost.$51.33 
Will say that tho above does not include 
any extra. The four years that I have 
been in the business 'i have had extra 
expense on account of predicted rains: this 
is quite an expense to stack and unstack, 
as in stacking in case of predicted rain 
we have to pay 50 cents or more an hour. 
As conditions have been since I have gone 
back to the land growing raisins has been 
no snap, as you will see that the actual 
cost is over 2 (A cents a pound. p. s. w. 
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TABLE OF COST OF HOAD CONSTRUCTION. 
Cost of roads per mile in Texas: 
Earth roads.—From $60 to $400. Aver¬ 
age in five counties, $16S. 
Sand-clay roads.—From $60 to $2 000 
Average in 41 counties is $593. 
Gravel roads.—From $100 to $4,000 
Average in 27 counties is $1,70S. 
Macadam roads.—From $1,000 to $3,500. 
Average in five counties is $2,160. 
Bituminous macadam.-—In El Faso Countv 
the cost is $6,000. 7 
Shell roads.—Average in three counties 
IS «j'o,Uoo. 
Cost of roads per mile in United States:.. 
Sand-clay roads.—From $387 to $1,775 
Average in 17 States is $723. 
Gravel roads.—From $940 to $5,950. 
Average in 31 States is $2,047. 
Macadam roads.—From $2,158 to $9 164 
Average in 34 States is $4,989. 
Bituminous macadam.-—From $6 000 to 
$19,681. Average in 10 States is $10,348. 
In Texas the total mileage of all public 
roads is about 128,971, of which only two 
per cent are improved. Of the 2,768 miles 
of improved roads by far the greatest mile- 
age (about 2,254 miles) are sand-clay con¬ 
struction. The total mileage of public 
roads in Hunt County is 1.600. 
The variation in the cost of road 'build¬ 
ing in any given way depends on the 
width and depth of material among other 
things. For sand-clay roads the average 
width in 17 States is 17 feet, and tiie 
average depth of surfacing is nine inches. 
The gravel roads in 31 States averaged 
13 feet wide and seven inches deep. The 
average width of macadam surface is 13 
feet in 34 States, and the depth is six 
inches. The average width of bituminous 
macadam in 10 States is 15 feet and the 
depth six inches. 
Without doubt the sand-clav road ob¬ 
tained by using six to eight inches of clav 
plowed and harrowed into a sandy gravel 
to form a thorough mixture gives a com¬ 
paratively low priced and satisfactory road 
and it is rapidly growing into great favor. 
The kind of road and method of mainten¬ 
ance determine the cost to a great extent. 
The European countries long ago saw the 
absurdity of building good roads and ne¬ 
glecting them. They therefore established 
a patrol system. Only in New York State, 
however, do we have such a system and 
there it has been very successful! One pa¬ 
trolman can care for six to 12 miles of 
road, patrolling the entire section at least 
twice a week, filling in the ruts and holes, 
repairing defective spots in the surface, 
sweeping the water-hound surface, and in 
general keep the road in first class condi¬ 
tion. and the ditches, culverts, etc., clear 
so that the road may be well drained. It 
is the practice of the old adage “A stitch 
in time saves nine.” By such a careful 
system the cost of maintenance, based on 
the pay of patrolmen at $3 per dav for 
five months in the year, is about $75 per 
mile per year. The present form of main¬ 
tenance of roads in New Hampshire and 
elsewhere is by use of oil treatment covered 
with sand. That costs $440 per mile. 
There can be no question but what the 
automobile is the cause of great deteriora- 
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