News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-26
THE COUNTRY ROADS.
HOW THEY ARE DOCTORED UP BY
THE PATHMASTER AND MADE AL.
MOST IMPASsiBLE.
A Slipshod Way of Doing Business that
SOreIy Needs Reformation.
[From the New York Hour.1

[From the New York Hour.
There is no place where slipshod OF
| imperfect methods are more disastrous
than they are in road-making in this
| State; the very system itself-which q
few townships have lately freed them
selves from-virtually infiicts these
methods. A small township is divided,
say into twenty districts, nearly confer
minous with the different school districts.
The different persons representing votes
| or property there are taxed. both by poll
and assessment, and an officer called q
pathmaster, on one or two different
periods between the LIST of May and the
LIST of November, "warDs" these persons
out, by timely notice, to work their tax.
The farmers team, cart and scraper, all
count, as well as his own personal labor
and the labor of his hired men. Those
who do not choose to work commute, y
at the rate of dollar per day, and need
not appear. There are always goodly
number of the committing class-widows
and valetudinarians, and others-and
their money, theoretically, goes to hire
the labor which they cannot or do not
wish to bestow. As the pathmaster is
not held to any very strict account,
there is general belief that, in frequent
cases, this money goes no further than
into his own pocket. If the pathmaster
is honest it does; but if he feels that he
has certain incomplete interest in these
public funds which he himself may COM
plete, the road will not get the benefit
of them. Practically, too, it often hap
pens that some OF the assessed men get
o,,A ~e <-.,, - i
muting altogether. The pathmaster, as
every countr resident knows, either
lacks the power to compel obedience to
the law, or stops short of any extreme
measure.
In addition to all these liabilities, an
other aid to ineficiency is to be found in
the brevity OF the working day on the
road. For some reason, although the
farmer himself rises with the sun to do
his work on the farm, he does not appear
on the road until eight o'clock, and he
is not expected to. And he does not re-
main on it till the day ends. He de-
parts, usually, in time to do an hours
work on the farm after returning home.
To make matters still worse, the spring
work on the road is never done in time.
1t is almost always made to wait for the
farmers convenience, and this is not
often earlier than June. But, by June,
the general road-bed has made itself, for
the most part, and, to do more than to
fill up the gullies on the hills and to re-
move loose stones, and reshape the
water courses, at this late date, is to do
positive damage. The pathmaster thinks
not; and so about nine-tenths of his
efforts are worse than thrown away. To
rake up soft loan on the hard ad-bed
is his delight, and it is the equal delight
of the summer shower to transform it
into the thickest mud.
1t requires weeks, sometimes, for
nature and the pressure of continued
travel to set things right once more; but,
by sort of anatomical evolution, the
road-bed always becomes hard in Oc-
tober. Unfortunately the pathmaster
finds out just at this time that he has
little more work on his list to apply, and
October is his favorite month. 1t is ex-
asperating to see the hard road-bed
broken up late in the fall for this treat
ment ensures soft, rutted roads for the
entire winter, except when sleighing
comes to the public's relief. Yet how
often just this false step is taken, with
all the detriment which it implies ! No
one who has ever lived in the country
long, in this State or wherever the New
York system prevails, will fail to recog-
nize the brief outline of its working
which we have tried to draw. A far
better method is to accept the system
which few towns have lately adopted
and which is now permissible to all
and have all the road work in town
done by contract under the town COM
missioners. By this method certain
force of men is set apart constantly for
the business, under one skilled director;
machinery and teams specially adapted
to the work -arAe procured, and, what dis
best of all, the work is done in the right
way and at the right time.
But, with any method, there must be
interest and earnestness. A great OBJ
stacle to having good roads is, that few
are aware of the economical value of
them. They are not merely luxurious
for the benefit of fast drivers, exclusive
ly. and for idle people. They are of
vital interest to every farmer, and every
person who rides over them. The wear
and tear to horse flesh, harness and
caused by poor roads, are
simply incalculable. If it could be put
in figures, the result would be startling
almost fabulous. At the same time,
no expense required to make good roads
is ever lost. 1t is an investment that at
once enhances the value of every farm
and piece of real estate that borders on
them