Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-04-26
Farm and Fl1>eSlde.


highways in the country. This is the best
time, perhaps, where surface repairs only
are required. The ground is then loose, so
that is easily removed, and is moist, so that
materials added will be moro readily com
pacted together and form a hard surface.
Where ruts are cut deoply,-as they arc
at present on many roads, good gravel
filed into them, will become in part incor-
poraled with the old material, aided great
ly bv the moist condition of the earth, and
thus form a tolerably good road. II the
gravel, however, of which the ruts were
originally composed, is worn out that is,
has been ground into a fine, powder-like
condition. ii should be taken away and its
place suppl ed by new, sharp gravel.
Under the general management of coun-
try roads, surface repairs are too constantly
required, are quite expensive, and when
made are unsightly, sometimes dangerous,
and nearly always inefficient. All these
details spring from the unscientifc and i'm
perfect manner in which the road was orig
inalv constructed. One days work, how
ever, even of this crude and unsubstantial
mode Cf road repairing, is worth as much
in April or early May, if the season is
wet one, as two or three days work would
be in the summer.
When road is dry, and has been trod-
den down as hard as the feet of horses, and
the wheels ofheavily loaded carriages could
make it, the surface is usually smooth. In
this condition, whatever is added cannot be
pressed into the road below, but is shifted
about by winds and the teams that pass
over it. This forms one of the worst roads
we have, either for light carriages or heavy
loads.
In making new highway, the first and
indispensable consideration, is that of so
locating and constructing it that water shall
never stand on it, or under it, TO its detri-
ment. There must be free and constant
drainage, or there can be no firm or perm
anent foundation, unless it be deep one,
like the abutmcnts to q bridge. Without
firm foundation, the road will not long
continue a good one, no matter how eXpen-
sive and thorough the superstructure may
be.
Provision must not only be made for
passing of the water which falls on the
surface, but that which percoates through
through the banks of adjacent streams.
Even on some old roads which have been
in use for fifty years, and whose repairs
have been .burdensOme tax, more good
may be accomplished by a judcous drain
age, al trifling cost, than by any additions
of stones, sand or gravel. Taking away
the surplus water will tend TO dry the sur
face and prevent deep ruts and mud, by
the action of frost, and will allow the whole
roud-hod to settle down into firm mass,
so as to resist the pressure Of hoofs and
wheels which pass over it.
Without drainage, wherever it is needed,
no road will remain permanently good,
even il ills Otherwise unexceptonablc in
every particular
With from fifty to sixty miles of roads
to be annually repaired, as many of our
New England towns have the improve
montN upon them must be gradual. No
town would subject itself to the cost of a
thorough reform in one or two years. The
good work may be commenced, however,
and something done in the right direction,
which will stand as an example for future
operations.
II draiaase has been accomplished, most
OF the common roads may be made quite
acceptable by covering them with good
gravel, which is entirely free from stones.
It will be better oconomv to screcn tbe
gravel at fine nit and to bapl II ono mr. two
miles. than to use ,oom rrom tbo road Sides
or material from the sand hanks oven if
the bank be near at hand. The practice
which is too common of hauling gravel and
small stones upon the roads and spreading
them there is dangerous to animals and car
riaGes, and utterly ruinous to the road. No
road bed can become smooth and firm un-
DER such circumstances. Scarcely any
thing else destroys road so rapidly as
small stones lying upon it. The natural
wear, aided by frost, winds, and rains
combined, DO not injure it so much as the
s.ones. men Mn r sI r IKE ohs o, men
~ ~ .',' 49, ,,na, ',,''',
"s y ur' o,d 90, ,I,o ,,,,.,
III
VI uo''' 49,. 49, a., ~ ,oaao'. q ~ Ja.,
80 80, a.uia,.as a,sa 49, -
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sood
IT, soool,ino =, orr hiohwovs yo d;d no
;ntopd 70 snea,, of tbe construction of ne,
Gods lint on1v IN refer IN tbo renoirino r
old ones Nor will we 90 into the latter a
anv length. But we cannot close witbou
referrinp again to the inefficient and ex
nensive manner in which most of the road
are renaired. In the first place. the worl