Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-06-02
HIGHWAYS.

The roads are In bad condition eve
rywhere, and will be so, until more
money is raised to repair them, or a diff
ferent system for expanding the money
is adopted. No one who is familiar
with the present system can be satisfied
with it, as it gives so little work and
does that so unwisely. But so long as
we have this system we must make the
best of it. As general thing survey
ors are chosen in rotation-the honors
and duties of the Office are passed
around. The result is that the best man
is not made surveyor but anybody that
the lot falls upon. 1t is frequently the
case that the road master, feeling that
the same thing has been done before, ex-
ponds the most of his money upon a
particular section of the road that will
most accommodate him in his travel to
the village, to part of his farm, or to
some other point in which he is interest
ed. We believe that reads are repaired
too late in the season. A month or two
of bad travelling is endured, that the
farmers may get their springs work
done before an attempt is made to bene
fit the roads. After other work is out
of the way, the district is warned out to
work on the road, and motley crowd
assemblies. The boys, the "halt and the
blind" the aged and decrepit, everybody
that can stand up by the aid of good
hoe handle, or can possibly stand out a
days work, is there to attend the holi-
day. The surveyor is too busy to attend
to the whole crowd, and they are his
neighbors and his relatives, so he allows
each one to be his own overseer.-
The taxes are thus worked out but the
roads are not much benefited. The
fault is partly in the system and partly
in the false notion that many have, that
it is their duty to do as little as posi-
BILE when they work on the roads. In
the repair of highways, it ought to be
. kept in mind that water is the worst en-
envy to them, and that every means
ought to be taken to render them dry
by drains, bitches, water-courses and by
elevating the middle of the road, tina
rain may run off as it falls. In hill.
sections, few dollars expended to pre-
vent the possibility of the water runnin!
into the roads and down the hills viii
save much, as the water from one show
er will often wash out more dirt in a.
hour, than will require week to pu
back. In swampy roads 1t is worse tha1
useless to fill the road bed with tn
muck or loan found on the roadside
This soft stuff needs but a little water t
make intolerable and impossible roads
All the money that is put on to sucl
roads ought to be expended in cartin
sand or gravel, and in drains. If a lit
tie work is done each year by way of re
moving large stones and grading dow
steep places, a great improvement can b
made in few years in all our roads
Whenever towns build new roads q
bridges, they ought to build them thol
oughly, as little extra expense i
building will save very much in repairs
The same rule will apply to repairs.
short piece of road can be well repair
ed yearly, even if the remainder is le
barely passable, few years will put tt
whole in good condition. If we mu
continue the present system of expenc
ing money, it would be wise to elect IL
best road man in every district for su
veyor, and keep him in that Office unit
he puts the roads in order; and whe
we pay our highway tax by work, v
ought to feel it duty to do an hone
days labor.