The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-04-20
THE COUNTRY ROADS.

The fame of certain Gen. Wade who
constructed an admirable road somewhere
in England or Scotland during the last
century, has come down to posterity en-
balmed in couplet, by local poet, writ
ten to celebrate the great achievement:
Ifyou had seen this road before it was made.
You would hold up both hands and bless Gen
wadel
There is much need of Gen. Wades in
Wisconsin. The condition of most of
the roads in the interior OF the State at
this season of the year, and during the
rainy season in autumn, is almost indie
scribably bad. The soil of the State is
generally clayey or a vegetable mould.
With sufficient moisture, it has infinite
capacity for development of mud. With
abundance Of gravel and stone IN most
sections, we have scarcely any maeadem-
lied or even graveled roads. The soft
earth is thrown in from hollow ditch
on either side and forms the roadway.
In rainy weather, with the passage of
teams, it becomes like bed of mortar
growing ever deeper and deeper. In
seasons like the present. when masses Of
wet and melting snow fall from time to
time to be stirred with the mud already
made, such roads become weltering
quagmire nearly impossible and rivaling
the Slough of Despond through which
Bunyan's pilgrim struggled with so much
difficulty. The person who has the ILL.,
luck, at this time, to be compelled to
drive few miles in the country is likely
to be wildly impressed with the import
ance of reform in our methods of road
making. The moment one leaves the
paved streets of the city the trouble be-
gins. Off the lines of the railways, at
this season, almost all communication of
neighbor with neighbor, and town with
town, is suspended. Such state of
things is not only serious inconven-
fence, but real damage to the interests
of both city and country, and it is time
that measures were devised to remedy
the evil. A large sum is expended every
year in work upon the roads; but with
few exceptions nothing is done to make
any part of them permanently good. The
labor is mainly employed in patching up
the ruts of the last wet season, and in re-
turning the mud that has oozed into the
bitches, back to the road-bed, where it
will be again stirred into mire the next
autumn and again flow back into the
ditch. Is it not time that beginning
was made in the construction of better
class of roads? Could not each town re
solve, besides patching up the ruts of
the present spring, to build. a little per.
manent road, if not more than quarter
of mile in length, during the coming
season, and to add to it with every sue
ceeiing year until, by and by, all lis main
lines of road would be passable in spite
of rains and melting snow2 One sees
such roads almost everywhere in Europe,
roads that in the longest stretch of rainy
weather do not melt and dissolve into
deliquescent mire, but remain solid and
smooth. Roads of this kind can be built
here, they cannot become general until
after the lapse of considerable time, but
the sooner beginning is made in con-
structing them the better. The money
expended for such purposes will be a good
investment for every town that so en-
ploys it.-MilUaukee Republican.