The Portland daily press., 1869-04-20

Tuesday Morning, April 20, 1859.
f. Making and Mending Roads.
PORTLAND.

Making and Mending Reads.
To any one who sits down and seriously
reflects on our mode of making and repairing
highways, and counts the annual cost, it does
seem passing strange that our farmers have
so many years plodded along in the old route
without making single effort to change
their rcourse. We we'll remember that mer-
chant in a country town in this county, half
century ago or more, was chosen Surveyor
OF Highways" BE was an enterprising indi-
vidual, having removed from the nutmeg
State some tive or three years before his ap-
pointment as surveyor, and feeling desire to
get out of the old way in which his fellow
townsmen had SO long travelled, he prided
himself on his little brief authority, and
warned the farmers to appear on certain
| day with their oxen, plows, harrows, crow
bars and stone drags. All were prompt on
time and wondered what was to be done.
Near his own store IN the little village he
ordered the largest and strongest breaking
sp-plow to be placed in the centre of the
road and strong team of noble oxen was
hitchsd to it. Now said the surveyor to the
stalwart man who stood between the handles
of the plow. "Let her run clear to the BEAM"
there was flourish of goadsticks and away
went plow and oxen and deep turrow was
made in the centre of the road many rods,
and then back furrow was turned up. The
old farmers were amazed and the young ones
kQd 40 G1u Tn %ha
plowed up several feet wider than the travel
ed path, and turnpike was made with good
bitches on either side. We believe that was
the first time the citizens of that town ever
heard uttered the word turnpike. Many be-
lieved that the surveyor had spoiled the road :
and many mutterings were heard on the oc-
casion. We shall never forget that day when
the road was plowed up; for there was con-
siderable excitement in the village. The
soil was very heavy in the road, and probably
had never been plowed before. The survey
or had to wait one year before he received any
praise for his innovation in road-making in
that vicinity. taH
The next spring it was found that this
turnpike dried and settled earlier than the
road had ever been before, and most of the
old foges acknowledged the turnpike was
decided improvement on the old method of
repairing hi ,hways
We refer to the above because it was a
step in advance, but only step, for in very
few years the turnpike settled down, the
bitches filled up and the road became as bad
as it was before. No doubt it has been
plowed up several times since that memorable
day when the Connecticut surveyor SO as
tonished the natives. Now we are compelled
to say the work was not half done, although
that surveyor believed he had accomplished
great feat. But he was ignorant as well
as the people among whom he came to re-
side, and sell New England rum by the hogs
head, as he did for years, and scarcely man
or woman thought him the worse for it;
for such was public sentiment at that time.
Many and many hogshead was carted over
that turnpike, and for years and years no
farmer did his haying without full supply
of new rum. Turnpikes were made, high
ways were mended, and even funerals were
conducted with this fluid. Many pretend to
believe that there is as much Intoxicating
liquor used now as there was forty years ago.
Bnt it is not so by many full hogsheads. Not
fiftieth part Of the amount is now assd in
our country towns as there was then.
But to our subject. How would this turn
pike have been improved and in the end saw
ed the town much expense? That is a ques-
ton in which our farmers have a deep inter-
est. We take this piece of road as an illus
tration. The Boston Advertiser wisely says:
"In the art Of road making the real trouble
Is that we neither build our roads in the
first place nor keep them in repair afterwards,
and thus we continue to pay directly or in
directly tax which, if we could have it as
sessed in the regular way, would cause
political revolution among u.s." There is
much truth in the the above statement. Our
farmers expend vast deal of labor every
year in repairing highways of which more
than one half is absolutely lost, and worse
than lost if that were possible. It is high
time that revolution in this work should
take place, and all this lost labor should be
devoted to the farm. Farming is too profita-
BILE business to be thus neglected by work.
ing out road taxes from year to year. = ~
But we may be asked, what is the remedy
for this great evil? We answer by saying
that the turnpike above spoken of ought to
have been better drained than merely crown
ing it In the middle and digging side bitches.
1t ought to have been underdrained SO as to
keep the ground free from the moisture with
which the frost works its mischief as the Ad-
vertiser says. Again there is another i'm
provement that might have been made which
would have been Of enduring value and saved
much labor. The soil plowed up was not the
only proper material for the road bed, but
broken stone of various degrees of coarseness
ought to have been used. These are permea-
BILE by the water beneath, and yet win be-
come smooth on the surface. How many cul-
verts we have seen made with logs and plank
covering, while good stones were near at
hand? But lumber was cheap in those days,
and water course could be sooner made
with it than with stones. And SO they were
made, and when rotted out replaced again
with the same perishable materials, and 90
on for many years. az
Boast as much a. we may Of our progress
in the science of government and of our in
genuity in the manufacture of labor-saving
machines and tools, we are still far behind
the Old World in making and repairing our
roads. 1t ought not to be SO, but so it is, and
when New England viii "mend her Ways is
more than we know. When we see survey
or place some broken stones into hole in the
road instead oftshoveling some dirt into it,
we shall have hope Of him. This mending
our highways every spring is severe draw
back upon the labor of our farmers. But
that is not all. Hear the Boston Advertiser
again. 1t says: sHhs asoge
But the heaviest part of the highway tax
| Is no doubt that which is levied upon us by
the destruction Of horse flesh, the impeding
| OF public travel, the wear of vehicles, and the
increased cost of transportation over our poor
roads. This is tax which without any as
SCISSOR or collector is inexorably exacted from
every barrel of -four, every bag of grain, every
box OF goods, and every person, passing over
our travelled roads. AS It is levied indirectly,
and more than all a. we have always paid it,
nobody thinks of it. But it is one of the
heaviest burdens resting on the people of
Massachusetts, and Of New England, borne by