The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-12-18
POETRY.
my Heart, I Cannot Still It."
Improving Country Roads.

One Of the greatest drawbacks to the ease
and pleasure OF rural life is the general bad
ness of country roads. The wretched sytem
by which they are mismanaged is conducive
to waste of money and labor, the injury of
horses and vehicles, the destruction of har-
ness, the Inconvenience of the rough driving,
and the most disagreeable walking, in clouds
OF dust or deep mud as the case may be-, and
to very great extent, great additional cost
OF transportation on every load OF produce
taken to market, and every load of supplies
brought in. / have seen loads thrown off
from wagons and sleds, parts of loads left be-
hind, and in one notable case an empty wag-
on remaining fast in the mud, upon a west
ern road that was in such condition of bog
and quagmire as to disable the owner
of the four horse team from riding
home because of the inability of the horses
to carry HIM, SO that he trugded after them
painfully, knee-deep in the sticky mud. Upon
such road have had my boots drawn off by
the suction of the deep mud, and have been
forced, being belated by the tiresome travel,
necessarily on foot, to proceed without them
from the impossibility of finding them by
cropping in the darkness. What the survey
or experienced, when years ago in western
wilds he became acquainted with the pion-
Ger roads OF the first immigrants, he now
sees something of again, almost every winter
when rains and frosts alternate and by their
combined effects reduce the roads of the civ
ilized country to plastic mass of the stickiest
clay and mud. That this should occur argues
that civilization has not improved as it
should upon the natural capabilities of the
wilderness. But our present condition makes
it necessary that something should be done to
change our system of making and maintain
ing roads.
Roads, to be most useful, should be as
short, straight, level, smooth and hard as
possible. A straight level road is the shortest
road, and deviation from straightness is to
be preferred rather than to lose the level.
For the use of a road is measured by its
least effective part, and If hill is to be sur
mounted about once in ten miles, the load of
team for the whole distance must be regu-
lated by that one difficult spot The increase
of distance must be regulated by that one
difficult spot, The increase of distance in
horizontal curve is comparatively little;
road 10 miles long may curve SO much that
not more than fourth of mile can be seen
from any one point of it, and yet the whole
distance will be increased only $50 yards over
that of straight line. This corresponding
increase of cost in construction is q trife
as compared with the avoidance of hill that
would require load to be decreased one
is very great in increasing the resistance to
traction. A horse that can draw a ton upon
level road can draw only 1,500 lbs. upon
grade rising foot in 45; only 1000 lbs. upon
grade of l in rs; and but 200 lbs. upon
grade of foot in 10. Otherwise he must ex-
ert an increased force of four times his usual
power in the 1 in 10 grade, and twice his
power in that of in 25. The frequent repe-
tition of so great an exertion upon our ordi-
nary roads, is a prevalent cause of lameness
and disease In farm horses. So in descend
Ing grades, the departure from level of more
than foot in 35 is exceedingly destructive
OF horse0esh, as causing injurious and unus-
ual strains upon the joints and tendons. At
the slope mentioned, vehicle upon the
smooth surface of the best made road will de-
scend of its own weight; all sleeper grades,
therefore, tend to the rapid wear and tear of
horses and harness. Moreover, as the speed
must necessarily be decreased in travelling up
and down slopes, that is equivalent 10 the
frightening of the distance to double the
length of the slopes. The common idea that
1t rests horse to travel up and down hill,
is contrary to the fact and common sense-as
much so as that it would rest man to 90 up
and down stairs, rather than to walk upon
level floor.
The previously mentioned conditions of
road refer to its location; its smoothness,
hardness and the contour of its surface refer
TO Its materials and construction. These are
the all-important points of this subject; for
road may be undulating if not billy, and yet,
by reason of Its excellent surface, may be
really good one for all purposes, while a
straight and level road, such as are common
in the western prairie States, may be utterly
impossible, because 1t is badly constructed or
made OF poor material. Again, of the two
material and construction-the latter is by
far the most important, for it is difficult to
mention any kind of soil, except one almost
wholly of vegetable ORIGIN that cannot be
used successfully. in greater or less degree,
in making roads. by means of skillful meth.
DDS of construction. Thus, any material,
except loose sand. may be packed and con-
solidated by proper methods, so that it may
furnish hard and solid road bed, while it
may be SO shaped on the surface as to cause
water to flow off quickly, without penetrating
1t, and may be sub-drainej, so that whatever
water may enter it shall be quickly removed
and the surface dried.-Corr. Country Gen.
tlenan.