Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-19
THE GAZETTE: FORT WORTH. TEXAS MONDAY AUGUST 49,

! roads in the departments; under him are
| engineers having charge of certain dis
| tricts, and under each of these are super
| intendents and overseegs, each in charge
| of certain length of road, and with a
| certain force OF Iaborers and the neces-
| sary materials for keeping the road al
ways in good order. 1t is, in short, the
same system of S-constant inspection,
maintenance, and repair which is in use
on every one of'our principal railroads,
| but which is never applied to our roads.
The fundamental principles of main
| tenance, as laid down insthe Manuel of
Instruction, are only two IN number,
VIZ: l. The removal of the daily wear
of the road, whether in the form of mud
or dust. ,. The prompt replacement of
this wear by new materials.
Each road is divided into sections
called cantOns; on heavily travelled
roads canton may be only one hun
| dred yards long, on light roads it may
be mile: and to each canton there is
workman known as a cantonnier, who
is responsible for the condition of the
road in his canton. He lives in the
immediate vicinity, and Is obliged
to be on the road from a. m to
p. m. in summer, and from sunrise to
to sunset in winter; he can rest two hours
for his MONDAY meal, but with This ex-
ceptiOn he must be always at work be-
tween the hours above stated. He has
the following tools, viz, wheelbarrow,
iron shovel, wooden shovel, pick, iron
scraper, wooden scraper, broom, iron
rake, crOwbar, hammer and tape-line.
His duties are, /, to keep the cutters
clear so that the water can run off freely;
2, to scrape off the mud in wet weather
nd Il ~, IL h
so as to keep his canton always clean;
3, to clean off the snow as far as posi-
BILE, and break up the ice on the surface
of the road and in the cutters during the
winter; 4, to pick up all loose stones,
break them, and pile them in reg
ularly shaped piles on the side of the
road, ready for use in repairing ruts and
holes; to keep the mile-posts in good
order: 6, to take care of the trees border
ing the road.
The six adjacent cantonnieTs form
squad called brigade, which is under a
foreman known as a cantOnnier- chef and
forms the unit of working force. Sew
eral brigades are placed under the charge
Of q cOnducteur, or superintendent, who
has charge of a section of forty to fifty
miles Of road for the good order of which
he is responsible, and every part of which
he must inspect and report upon twice a
month. Several sections are placed I'M
der an engineer, who has charge of all
the roads in an reimbursement, or town
ship, and must inspect every part of them
once in three months. Finally, the en-
gincer-in- chief has charge all the roads
in the department, or province, eighty
seven OF which constitute the territory OF
France.
During the winter, when the repairs
are heavy, and whenever general re-
surfacing of the road is undertaken, the
regular cantonnlers are assisted by
auxiliary labor hired for the time being.
The broken stone required for such work
is furnished by contract.
1t should be borne in mind that this is
not paper organization, or code of for
gotten statutes, but an actual working
system il full operation to-day. 1t is the
result of 100 years of thought and labor
devoted to an important subject by
some of the best minds in France, and
the result is the most superb system of
roads to be found anywhere in the world
The cost is surprisingly small, consider
ing what is accomplished. The actual
cost per mile Of maintaining the national
roads Gall macadamiZed) is given III
Debauye' 3 Manual for each of the eighty
seven departments. IL varies from sixty
dollars to five hundred dollars per mile,
with an average of $50, OF which about
half is for labor and half for materials.
For maintaining less important roads the
average cost per mile is as follows: De-
partmental roads, SI35; important local
roads, $92; ordinary local roads, S57; by
roads, G42.
1t would seem as if & somewhat ana
1npnuS iOhf 10 in
lea, by which the roads in each state
might be placed in charge Of the state
engineer, the repairs N each county to be
made by the county surveyor accord
ing to the instructions of the state en-
gineer, a uniform road tax of say mills
to be levied throughout the state, but the
amount OF taxes raised in each county to
be expended in that county. With an
estimated valuation in the state of New
York Of 81 200 900 200 exclusive of city
property for the census of 1890, such q
tax would yield Sc 900 900 per annum
for the roads Of the entire state; and this
sum judiciously expended, according to
well-digested plans and under competent
supervision, would in q few years rebuild
nearly all on, important roads and main
tain them in good order. The present l
system of independent action or inactiOn
by each board OF county commissioners Is
known to be a complete failure. What
it costs for the entire state cannot be
stated, for there are no statistics on the
subject. Possibly if the statistics were
available it would be found that the total
cost is fully as great as the sum above
stated, although the result is almost
nothing. AS for toll roads, and compul-
sorry labor or tax in lieu thereof, they
are both out of date at the end of the
Nineteenth century.
In brief, then, the only system for
good country roads, as shown by uni
versal experience, is bed of stone,
broken into small angular fragments and
thoroughly rolled, and maintained in
good order by q small force of laborers,
under proper organization and supervls-
ion, constantly at work summer and
winter in cleaning off the road and re-
pairing any defects the moment they ap-
pear; to which must be added from time
TO time, according TO the afsount of
traffic and resulting wear, a general red
newal of the road surface with the sames
materials, sss8 ~
ReseAea PA stlagis on weak IA