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Show BRING UP RUN-DOWN ROADS Too Little Is Being Taught of Fundamental Funda-mental Principles Should Begin at Very Bottom. There has been a good deal said In the various farm papers and in the institute bulletins about high road-making, road-making, and at the institute meetings ilso. The institute meetings and farm papers of various kinds are telling us how to bring up run-down farms, and maintain them, our herds, our flocks, etc., writes C. E. Haskins in Hoard'B Dairyman. But there is nothing said in regard to the fundamental principles, princi-ples, 1. e., commencing at the bottom of a road and bringing it to proper grade to use a drag on. Now, I would take a road that is not sandy, and is dishing in the middle; I would get the center and grade and then I would commence in the middle and plow lightly the first two or three rounds, and go a little deeper until I got the usual depth of plowing, and plow the width of 30 feet cross slope. I would Co this plowing as early in the spring as possible and let it lie until the last of May or first of June, If it was sod. But In the meantime, I would run a fair heft road drag over It occasionally until the last of May or first of June, to mellow it up into dirt. Then I would commence outside of the wheel track (providing the travel was in the center of the road) and Plow again as far as before, and then keep the road drag In use after every rain, and use the ditch cleaner occasionally. occa-sionally. You will have as nice a cross slope as you could ask for, and cheaper cheap-er than any other method. Our farmers' institutes are doing a great work in our great state of Wisconsin, Wis-consin, which I have no fault to find with in any respect. But our roads ought to be first on the list, for we are at a place where we have got to have practical men along this line. We are not going to have rock roads all at once, because our state Is not in shape to appropriate money enough to us to build rock reads in one year, nor In ten. So I saw we ought to have the A, B, C's taught at our farmers' institutes, and through our farm papers pa-pers along with our high road making. |