The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1883-08-04
IMPORTANCE OF ROADS.
Conntrn Gentleman.

Country Gentleman.
We are not aware that any estimate
has ever been made of the actual cost
of the public roads of the United States,
or that the expense of providing them
has ever been attempted by any bureau
of statistics, but we make the rough
estimate that they have cost at least
seven hundred million dollars-prob-
ably much more-while unknown mil
lions are annually expended in attempt
ing to keep them in repair. If the
money were only well applied, it would
be an expenditure of great profit and
economy, as everything which the farm
er does off his own land is greatly
affected by their condition. All his
many loads of surplus farm products
are drawn over them, and it makes
some difference to him and to his
horses whether those loads are conveyed
easily over hard, smooth surfaces, or
dragged through mud and against stones
with severe labor to the team, fatigue
to the driver, and wear and breakage to
the wagon. Every week he and his
family, more or less, 60 to the village
for numberless errands, or to church on
the Sabbath, and the good or bad con-
dition of the roads seems to affect every
fiber, pleasantly or unpleasantly, of
their feeling or nervous sensations.-
On an average, there is at least twenty
miles of travelling each week for the
members of single family. 1t would
make a difference of five dollars week,
everything counted, whether this team
ing and travelling is done over a nice,
comfortable road, or through mud holes,
sloughs, ruts, and unbridged streams,
or against stones. Five dollars a week
amounts to $3.50 a year, snug little
sum to tax the farmer with; and when
this sum is multiplied by at least five
million owners or drivers of horses,
carriages, wagons, heavy teams, ETC.,
the aggregate cost would be something
over billion dollars Does any one
say this is too large an estimate ? Then
proceed. in detail and show in what
particulars; but do not blindly and
ignorantly say it is wrong without care
full examination. Suppose, however, we
admit that it is double the reality, is
not the six hundred millions every
year, expended directly or indirectly
by our people, worthy of more atten
ton on the part of patriots, statesmen,
politicians, Office seekers, public spirited
men, writers for newspapers, agricul-
tural journalists, and in fact of every
one who passes over road
So long as our public highways in
most parts of the country are made and
repaired with so little interest and SO
little thonght, we must suffer an enor-
nous loss. We would like to ask how
many of our readers, who drive or ride
over the common roads, never see a
loose stone, or a fixed stone, to strike,
jolt and batter every passing wheel, or
who do not see hundreds of them which
might be removed with the expenditure
of small portion of the road tax? How
many never saw sods and muck scraped
into the road bed, to form a highway
or turnpike" which would be excel
lent for corn and potatoes, but which
when worked into mass of mud, or
cut into rutS a foot deep, constitute a
strange object to be called "road ?"
How many never saw along the road
sides, thrifty patches of thistles, bur
docks, mulleins, Johns wort, nettles,
etc., etc., ready to seed all the neigh
bors' fields? Until we can find such
happy persons in the majority, we hope
more attention may be given to correc-
ting these evils, although we would not
lessen the praiseworthy attention which
is now freely accorded to enterprises
and interests of almost infinitely less
Importance, but good in their small
WaY