Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1869-01-22
agrifnlmral.
By our Agricultural Editor
Roads, Their Construction and Main
tenauCc.

sustain by far the greater part of all the
country roads; and as a simple matter Of
economy, without any other consideration
than that of building and supporting the roads
with the least possible burden of taxations,
present and prospective, it behooyes the farm
er to see to it that the roads are permanent
iy well made. 1t is hardly necessary in this
connection to discuss the advantages that the
farmer derives from having good roads TO
market, to mill, to church, and to school.
The whole subject of aesthetics as connected
with farm-life is subordinate in sense to this,
for although family may themselves have a
keen sense of the beautiful, and may build up
beautiful home, yet, if the approaches are
unsafe or even unpleasant the social advanta-
ges that it would otherwise afford them are
not available to them. Farmers sometimes
take the position that it is of no advantage to
them to provide good roads for g idle y peo-
pie to ride upon. One of these churls was
surveyor in a district which We had occasion
to visit last season, and in which If a high
way which in sense is byway,-that is,
there are but few families residing along it,
and there is but little business travel upon it.
But it is in its adjuncts and surroundings one
Of the prettiest drives in the country, with
somewhat popular mineral spring at one end Of
it, all being quite convenient to g smart Sc
New England village a somewhat famous sum
mer resort. He repaired the road the entire
length # this beautiful natural avenue by
throwing in large ''chunks" Of turf which as
the season was very dry were but little bet
ter than 50 many stones of the same size.
The result was that to ride through it at
speed greater than the sowest walk was t.
hazard life and limb, and but few persons ey-
er came over it the second time; ard the finc
equipages that 90 filed the eyes and minds
of his little boys in the early part of the sea
son found another route to the spring. To the
great relief of the father, who greatly learp
that the boys will acquire extayagant no
tions of life
But it is to the economical construction
and maintenance Of roads that we invite at
tention at this time. We start then with the
unqualified assumption that our system Of
rOsd-building is altogether faulty, and that
fundamental error is in the legal provision
for apportioning and ezpending the highway
taxes.
In the old feudal times where the yassal
was required, as one of the tenures by which
the land was held, to make the road Tassable
for the troops Of the lord of the mano- each
Tsssal by himself or all upon one estate col
lectively were required to support the roads
adjacent to the estate. modification ofthe
system, stall in vogue in many places is to as
sess so much labor to be expended under the
direction Of an officer, usually quite unquali-
fed for the duty of his position Our own
system differs from this in being assessed in
dollars and cents, and payable in labor or
money at the option Of the taxpayer. Our
towns are divided into highway districts.
and the residents of the district and non-resi-
dent landowners are required to work the tax
within the district. 1t frequently happens
that one district has a much more difficult
road to maintain than another with az much
or more taxable property within It's borders
Hence the taxpayer in the first district pays
the whole amount Of his tax while bis neigh
Dor few rods away frequently avoids the
necessity of paving at all, and actually con-
tributes nothing for the support Of the roads.
There is hardly town in the state Of Yer
mont where there is not Just this difference in
different districts. Another great evil is the |
system of appointing new surveyor for the |
district every year. Road making is q science |
and not one farmer in thousand understands |
it. Some few close observers have acquired |
some idea of what is required to make a |
passable road but by far the most Of all sur |
veyors very injudiciously expend their labor |
We know one mile of road, or perhaps it 1
would be quite as proper to call it street, ar
it is in one Of our large villages, upon which |
thousands of dollars have been expended and |
which to day is but little better than it was
ten years ago. Great stones and little stones, /
round stones and broken stones, have been |
heaped on to it and have settled down into it. |
until it would seem hardly possible to find
mud upon the line of it, vet in the season Of
mud but little else than mud can be found
Like the cart box that Locke Amsden put
in the water pail, the stones have gone to the
bottom. and as little of science as young
Locke knew, be would have known better
than to have put stones into bottomlcss mud
hole with the hope of making a solid road
bed.
A Judicious expenditure of one third of the
money already expended upon that piece Of
road would have made it permanently good.
The first thing required in a case like that
is to thoroughly underdrain the road, and
when that is done there is no better material
for road bed than the very earth that they
have been displacing by dropping stones into
it. A foot Of broken stone on top Of such a
rad bed makes the best county road known.
There are very erroneous notions generally
prevalent in regard to the best form Of sur
ace for roads, especially in hilly districts.
We not unfrequently meet with quite piece
OF road that would afford a very pleasant
drive but for numerous high ridges needless
" thrown across to turn the water off the
road. On bills too steep for rapid driving
these are not so Objectionable, but on moder-
ate grades they are unmitigated nuisances
We frequently meet with piece Of road on
evel of retentive soil, thrown up into a mar e
row high ridge, which compels every team to c
% in the same rut without a possibility of /
wedding it. We have in mind Just now :
piece of beautiful summer road where the r,
rant OF undertaking. is pretty well compen a
ated by deep side bitches and an elevation of a
he road to the extent of the material thrown =
nut of the ditches, but all this winter 80 far h
very fake of snow has been blown off in con-
equence of the elevation Of the road above til
he surrounding country. tn
A thousand striking examples OF faulty ps
construction will be recollected by every
linking man who travels in the country; but az
lst how to remedy the evils is not apparent ~
, every mind. The day of paying "in kind b
n every article bought, Is gone by and every
hing is reduced to a cash basis. Once in a ST
lille We meet q real old fogy farmer who
i'll runs up store debt or a blacksmith's ac- pc
'unt to be paid next winter in produce, and ul
e shall of course find him Directing to any 90 90
upon the old feudal system of pay
lg road taxes in labor; but it does seem as if
Ne system of collecting the road taxes in
,sh, to be expended by a qualified commits
oner,-a system immensely popular wherever
and should be adopted in every