FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
not yet be built everywhere and different 
sections direct their energies toward 
carrying forward the construction of 
their good roads as near to a high 
standard as possible with the best ma¬ 
terials at their disposal. In this worthy 
work Florida is fairly embarked and al¬ 
most every day witnesses the extension 
and completion of roads far better than 
any heretofore available. A great part 
of the state has a loose sandy surface, 
and the roads have been, and in many 
parts still are, of the worst possible 
character. Experiment has demon¬ 
strated that to move wagons over loose 
sandy roads requires a pull in pounds 
about equal to one-fifth of the weight 
of the load. Now, the same load on an 
ordinary earth road requires a pull of 
only about one-ninth of its weight. 
This simple statement makes it clear 
that almost any dry surface would be 
better than on sand roads. 
GROOVED WHEELS. 
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It is not out of the question that travel 
over loose sand might be rendered 
measurably easier by using wheels of 
suitable construction. Sand when 
firmly enclosed is one of the most ob¬ 
stinate of substances. Broad tires 
might be used having a broken central 
groove rolled into them, leaving hollows 
say six to eight inches long, an inch or 
more in width, and three-quarters of an 
inch or more in depth, thus forming a 
continuous series of small compart¬ 
ments in the center of the tire, which, 
when running over sand, would always 
be compresing it into solidity and firm- 
nes in a small mass as each compartment 
came below the center of the wheel, 
thus giving additional stability to the 
133 
wagon moving over the road. The 
sides of the compartments in the tires 
should slope gently inward, so that the 
sand may have a chance to leave the 
compartments. Rather deep felloes, 
coming to a fairly sharp angle inward, 
so as to prevent the sand from binding 
the rim of the wheel, would be of use 
in this kind of wheel. 
Such a device, if carried out, might 
aid where no improvement in roads is 
in contemplation. , 
The natural tendency, however, is to 
make an improved road. Good roads 
have been made in Florida by using sev¬ 
eral different materials for surfacing— 
rock, shell, clay and pine straw. These 
are, of course, not equally durable or 
useful, and their employment has always 
been governed by their presence and 
accessibility. If one was not available, 
perhaps another would be, and thus the 
work could go on. 
GOOD ROADS IN DIFFERENT COUNTIES. 
The work of making improved roads 
has progressed differently in different 
parts of our State. Some counties, it 
would appear, have done nothing in 
this- direction, while in others it has 
taken an important position in public 
work. In speaking more particularly 
of this, the writer will, no doubt, be par¬ 
doned for beginning with Orange, since 
that is his own county, and with her 
sixty to sixty-five miles of good roads 
she stands well to the front. 
In Orange county, after the road line 
is definitely located, the roadway is care¬ 
fully excavated to the requisite depth 
and width by a road machine. The 
surface material is then filled in to a 
depth sufficient, after a thorough roll- 
