Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1890-01-16
COUNTRY ROAD MAKING.
A Very Important Subject Considered in
Practical Manner.


Practical Manner.
In some instances where bad roads
prevail for want of system in road max
ing, attempts have been made to induce
the people of counties to give their con-
sent for bonded Indebtedness sufficient
to thoroughly improve the principal
roads in the shortest time practicable,
and many excellent reasons were given
in justification of such measures. So far
as known, propositions of this nature
have usually met with sufficient oppo-
sition to defeat or at least defer them,
and there is danger that the road inn
provements will be lost sight of until the
return of the usual annual season of i'm
passable roads. With the best railway
system in the world we are compelled to
admit that our common roads are, on
the whole, the worst to be found in any
country with the same wealth and oppor-
tunities and that the losses already sus-
tanned by reason of bad roads have been
good system of improved common roads.
The position is taken by the agricul-
tural editor of The New York World
that, as rule, the most feasible way
will be to begin at one or more of the
most important points towards which
the traffic and travel of the country is
directed, and from these points improve
yearly in permanent manner the most
important of the roads leading from them
in such way as to practically illustrate
the advantages of good roads and gradu-
ally bring the people up to the point of a
general extension of such Improvements.
While in many cases more extended
system that would improve more roads
and finish them up at once, even if leav-
ing large Indebtedness to be paid off
yearly afterwards, might really be the
most advantageous in the end, the meas
ure proposed is recommended for the
reason that in most counties the means
for carrying it into effect can be obtained
where the consent of the majority for a
large bonded Indebtedness to be expend-
ed at once would be refused. The objec-
tions made to road Improvements by
men whose farms lie off their conJem-
plated lines are commonly without any
good foundation. From the necessity of
the case, every road in the county can
not be macadamized. Quite often the
owners of valuable farms, rated high
for taxation and lying on an improved
road, would be found paying much
more towards its construction, compared
with the advantages received, than
would a farmer who has to travel few
miles on branch road before the main
one is reached, and yet it is from the
latter class that the opposition chiefly
comes.
About the first step to be taken in
bringing about a general improvement
in roads is to get farmers to understand
that not every one can be equally well
served in all respects by any public inn
provement, but that whatever will add
to the transportation facilities of county
must incidentally at least be benefit to
them individually, and generally, too,
about in proportion to the amount they
may have to pay for it. In many coun-
ties, if an amount equal to one-half the
money that has been subscribed and
paid in aid of railroad construction was
now expended in improving the COM
mon roads, the benefits would be more
manifest and far more evenly distrib-
uted.
Where the determination to abandon
the present shiftless method of road maxi
ing becomes fixed in a county, with the
will to incur the necessary expense, a
competent engineer should be employed
to resurvey the roads to be improved and
secure easy grades. A single too steep
ascent on an otherwise good road will
often limit the load of team to one-half
of what might easily be hauled over the
other parts. The road bed should not be
too wide. A width of twenty feet, prop
erly macadamized, will commonly be
sufficient. In some cases even less may
do. From six to ten inches in depth of
covering will usually be required If
broken stone is used, it should be uni
form in size. Large stones laid at the
bottom are liable to work upward.
Whether stone or gravel is used, ii
should be fine enough to pack well and
shed the water off into the bitches at the
sides and keep the bed of the road dry.
The MacAdam science of road making
consists in furnishing a solid, dry path
on the natural soil, and then keeping il
dry by waterproof covering of stone
which should form a hardened, smooth
surface for transportation"