Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-11-15
SOME HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENTS, Posi-
TIVE AND NEGATIVE

w hiuuieDuTy, IL lHe way naS Deen Ia
miliar to him in the past, now meets a
series of surprises of varied nature. He
finds the road itself from RptOn Hollow
to Middlebury line greatly improved by
the work of Mr.. Hodges, who has laid
out thereon the $500 appropriated equal
ly by the State and the town of Ripton.
The road-bed has been mostly rebuilt,
some portions on a foundation of stone,
and large part well covered with good
quality of road gravel. The ola decay
ing log barriers next to the stream have
been replaced by good and permanent
walls of stone, narrow places have been
cut to proper width, and by a judicious
use of dynamite the ditch on the upper
side has been cut through the rocks and
led to the series of enduring stone sluices
put IN few years ago. The greater
part of the travelled track has stood the
test of the heavy teaming during the
months of wet weather following the
work, and what was before rough and
trying piece of road, full of ruts and mud
holes, has been made very fair high
way.
On the contrary, he will miss the way
ing branches whose abundant foliage on
either hand was wont to make this wind
ing mountain way in summer cool and
grateful retreat, and in autumn a path of
gold and crimson, famous long and far
among the most beautiful drives in New
England. The trees have fallen and the
decaying limbs of silver birch, graceful
beech, sturdy maple and shadOwy hem
lock now lie in unsightly heaps along
the banks'hitherto adorned by their beau
ty. The few that remain by the roadside
have been hacked and mangled till they
stand. like the headless Lavinia, holding
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limbs to cry shame upon their despoiler.
Nor is it beauty alone that has been sac
rficed, for stout trees, the growth of
many years, whose roots have served to
bind the insecure banks to the rocks be-
meath, have been cut away, with the al
most certain result that in a short time
the soil will be swept away by the high
water and the branch will occupy the
place where the road now runs. The eX-
cuse put forth for this piece of vandal-
ism, that it was necessary to let i'm the
sun to keep the road dry, is simply nom
sense. With the present system of ditch
es and drains the road-bed would take
care of itself, with decent attention to
the filling of such depressions as will be
formed from time to time-and without
such care there will be mud on this road,
following around the north side of the
| its III uDes, WIlelIltT Tile trees
are cut down or permitted to stand. That
the sun will now get in there no doubt
the summer traveller will find to his sor-
row and he will doubtless be led to pom
der on the wisdom of men who set out
and cultivate trees to shade the road
where the sun does shine, and destroy
the natural foliage that shadows another
part of the same highway.
Crossing the line into Middlebury our
traveller will be first surprised to find
that he is barred out of some forty rods
of the best and most level part of this
highway, and is sent through Il muck
bed and over the top of knoll that rises
about twenty feet above the highest
point of the old road, and thence down
through companion mud hole to the
former track This bit of new road
seems an expensive luxury, costing for
the building some $500; especially as, to
the lay mind, it appears as if very
small sum laid out in blasting opposite
the point where the bank broke away
would make room for IA permanent road
bed there and restore the old way. The
added hill is a nuisance that only neces-
sity will ever make tolerable.
Passing down toward East Middebury
he would come to the Cold Spring, where
a never-falling stream, cold and pure,
gushes from the mOuntain-side for the
refreshment of man and beast This was
always charming spot, hedged in close
ly on the south by the shrubbery which
clothes the mountain-side, while across
the way. on either side of the streamlet
which cuts its narrow path down the al
most perpendicular side of the canon
hundreds of feet to the stream below,
rose lofty hemlocks whose wide-reach-
ing boughs fenced and shaded the road
way, forming Il nook, as has been said
by admiring visitors, that Titania might
choose for her fairy court of a summer
afternoon. There is no danger of her
choosing it now; for our road-makers
have cut the hillock west of the rivulet
bare of timber for long way down the
canon, and it now sticks up there, a bare
and warty eXcrescence, hateful to the
eye. Thus has the place been robbed of
its beauty and the bank deprived of its
natural supp ,rt. The timber was used
to make log foundations for the new
stone walls erected on the banks few
rods below. 1t was said that foOthold
could not be got for a stone foundation
for this expensive wall; that had been
once tried and the wall had gone down
into the branch. 1t is claimed bv some
critical persons that the former wall
would not have gone down If it had not
been shabby job done late in the fall
with the foundation stones 1imsily set on
frozen ground; and (again to the lay
mnd) it does seem remarkable that the
bank could not have been cut or blasted
into until a secure foundation for stone
work was secured. In any case the logs
are but poor and temporary makeshift,
and the work will soon have to be
done over again, as similar work has just
now been done over, this time on stone
foundations, on the same road in Ripton
Our traveller would again be unhap-
PLY disappointed when he struck the
stone road from the top of the hill west
of Beaver Brook up to the Boyce place.
lie would remember that as part of a
road builded only a few years ago by
Middlebury at great expense; a road
that has since remained in great perfec-
tion, save that, in this part, there were
some uneven places and it had become at
times somewhat dusty. These defects
arose from the fact thar the finishers of
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