The midland journal., 1889-12-20
Friday, Dec. 20, 1889.
Roads.

usual attention III all pGTlS ol the country
We receive many pamphlets and articles Oh
the subject of better roads, which treat ex-
haustively the question Of better roads and
how to make and improve them. All agree
in one particular, i. e., the necessity of EN-.
ployirg engineers and other parties who
understand the business. The mtst i'm
proved tools for the purpose must he had
and the work laid out and directed by COM
petent men, the proper materials, suited t.
the soil over which the road is laid, are all
important factors in the work. All such
details have to enter the problem, if the cost
is to be at the minimum for the advantages
gained.
Sone parts of Baltimore county appear 10
be leading in road improvement, especially
the first district. In addition to the gen
eral county tax special tax is raised by
that district which is used in making
permanent piece Of road, yearly. The Bal
tmore Sun is doing good work in keeping
the subject agitated. In a recent numb, r
the Sun says:
"Interest in the matter is spreading all
over the country, especially among tn
Patrons of Husbandry, and the Baltimore
County Grange has published call for
public meeting of farmers and others inter
ested to be held iu the Courthouse, Towson-
town, some day during the holidays to dis
cuss the subject of County Roads and
Taxation"
The interest in, and the work Of, road
Improvement has been advanced greatly by
an ''Improvement Association
If the 9th district of Cecil county would
follow the lead of the first district Of Balti-
more county, the property of the distric
might be largely enhanced in value. Ad-
vantage could be taken of the experience OF
the Baltimore county pioneers in the work
of making good roads, and the probable c. 81
ascertained. Farmers could work out or
earn conslde, able portions Of the extra tax
by furnishing stone, at designated points on
the roads for the breaker, and when the
worst places had been made permanently
good the whole people would begin to un
derstand the profit which is to be reaped
from hard, dry roads the year round.
Rising Sun as business center would re-
ceive immense advantage from system o.
thorough road Improvement IN the Sixth
district, and every farm within that territory
would be a considerable gamer by increased
facilities for travel. Each neighborhood is
interested in having solid road 10 haul
and travel upon 10 its nearest depot and
post office. A movement once started,
would spread through the county and the
money which is virtually wasted every year
would become in large measure permanent
and profitable investment. The future cost
of keeping such roads, as contemplated, in
repair would BE- but triae compared with
the annual cost of our present wasteful sys-
TEN. The hilly and sandy sections Of the
roads would require but little expense, and
OILY the great muddy reaches which place
an embargo on travel in wet seasons and in
spring and winter, require skilled engineer
ing aud large out lay to make permanently
good.
This business is in the line of Grange
work and Cecil Grange could not contrib
ute greater service 10 the community from
which its membership is drawn than in TAX
ing steps to inaugurate such an improve
ment.
Mr.. Lawrence MeCabe of Queenstown,
Bait. county, member-elect Of the Legisla-
ture in the Sun says:
"The principal roads iu each district
ight to be macadamized. These super
visors could see, too, that the work was
properly done, ard they could have geu-
eral supervision of the whole matter. All
work, too, should be doue by contract, for a
contractor could get as much work done for
one dollar as the county could for dollar
and a-half. The general custom was to pay
the contractor so per cent every two weeks
of the cost of the work as it progresses, and
retain the balance until the work was fin
ished These contractors should give pref
erence to country laborers where everything
was equal, but they should have the right to
obtain the labor from whatever source they
deemed best. The work should be done
right. There is no use of doing it at all if
it is not done so as to be permanent. ]
think road could be built for 81, 500 to
$4,000 per mile and the stone be put on
nine inches thick and perhaps twelve inches
1t would cost about 81, 500 mile to put the
stone one the roads and the work of making
the roads would cost but about $500 per
mile. The roadheds should be dug out at
least three inches and large stone be put
down first as bed and smaller ones put on
top and we'll rolled. This should he dress
ed off with dust from the crushers. | have
had much experience in the use of broken
stone for balasting railroads, and know
pretty well what it would cost.
"Mr. Peter Link, one of the three road
supervisors of the first district, says that
when he was first appointed road supervisor
thirteen years ago, scarcely road over
which he has control had any bed Of stone,
but that now thele is but about one mile out
of twenty that he supervises which is not
D ked. He made it a rule, he said, TO spend
the money given him in putting stone
uoon the roads, and not in THROWN & up the
dirt To be transformed into mud by the first