Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-09-21
Some Practical Remarks About Our
County Roads and Bridges.
Editor Vindicat0r.

|
If you will allo " me little space in thu
columns of your valuable paper 1 would
be glad to say something on the public
road question. Not that like to talk OF
want to talk, but for the good of our roads
agitated again in the last issue of the Vim.
DICTATOR. 1t there is anything Augusta
county needs. next to public minded and
moneyed men, it is roads. I find when 1 90
to the Northern States they have good
roads, the Eastern States have good, and
in the West they have good roads-why
In the first place they give land enough to
make good road bed. You will find
North, where land sells for over one hun
dred dollars per acre, roads wide enough
to drive two and three and often four
abreast. and yet if you attempt to get one
decent track in this county some one will
squeai and say Il can't give the land it is
worth too much" and yet the roads have a
great deal to do in placing the value upon
an acre of land. If an acre of land pro-
duces fifty bushels of wheat and 1t costs
ten dollars to get that wheat to market, it
| depreciates from the real value of that acre
not only that but to business man
time is money" If it takes from 20 to
I 80 minutes to travel one mile that he
| ought to do in 8 to 10 minutes, then that
is costing that man money or its equivalent,
But we will not take the time to argue
this question, as any occupant of an insane
asylum will admit that good road is
good thing, and farm with good road to
, tits worth more than the same farm with
poor road. But what we want to say is
this Let us have land enough to make at
least two good drives. I will not take the
time to prove that two good drives in one
road is better than one, and three still bet
ter than two; will only refer you to the
North and West where they have them and
where they are success. But you take
most of our roads, there is only room
enough for one good track, and almost
every fellow that puts up q new fence or
repairs an old one moves it out in the road
about eighteen inches, SO that year by year
the fences are creeping into the road.
Where is the difficulty? In the first place
the road bed is, and always was, too mar
row; and in the second place road over
seers will not put the fence back for fear.
Let us have two tracks in the clear and let
the roadmaster have every fence moved
back, even if cousin Tim does get mad at
cousin Tom, and even if the neighbor does
get mad with his roadmaster neighbor, and
even if the uncle does get mad with the
overseer nephew; let's have some regard
for the road law.
Again, in the low places in the road there
ought to be box culverts not less than 80
feet long, and then filled over, instead of
these dug places for the water to stand in,
in the middle OF the road, until the mud is
axle deep There is one more suggestion
and I will close, and that is-hidges. Why
in the Northern and Western States you
aoiU find a bridge on cu10ert across c0eay
little stream, and you may drive for miles
and never cross q bit of water except
bridged. Of course this county will come
to that some time, but how long are we
when on trip, to aoait until the swollen
stream falls, or how long are we in the dead
of winter to stop to get rail and break the
ice before we can drive across. or how long
are we to have to plunge warm horses into
ice-cold water. or how long before we make
up and bridge our streams and make
decent roads ?
1t is useless for us to hope for our coun-
ty to stand abreast with other counties, or
to bring capital to our county SO long as we
are contented and happy, travelling in these
pig paths and mud holes. S. E. G.