The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-03-22
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ROADS.
What Experiment Has Proved - Some
Opinions from Rhode Island.

1t will take eight horses to draw a truck
and load weighing 5000 pounds on firm
soil covered with gravel four to six
inches deep. On earth embankment in
good condition the work can be done by
force equaling two and one-half horses.
On broken stone road in good condition
the same load can be hauled by force
of one and one. quarter horses, and on the
same road in bad condition, with ruts
four to four and one-half inches deep
and thick mud, five horses will be re-
quired. But on a good, dry pavement
one good horse can move the same load
all day.
On the subject of good and bad roads
the following from the pen of the late
DR.. j. G. Holland draws comparison
unfavorable to the existing road system
in America:
1.-THE point which l wish to impress
upon my American reader is simply this:
that the English horse, employed in the
streets of city or on the rcaIs of the
oc1ntyy, does twice as much work as the
American horse similarly employed in
America. This is the patent, undeniable
fact. No man can fail to see it who has
his eyes about him. How does he do it?
Why does he do it? These are most i'm
portant questions to an American. Ia
the English horse better than the Ameri-
can horse? Not at all Is he overworked?
l have seen no evidence that he is
have seen but one lame horse in London.
The simple explanation is that the Eng
lishman has invested in perfect and per-
manent roads what the American ex-
ponds in perishable horses that require
to be fed.
1--WE are using today in the little town
of Spring field just twice as many horses
as would be necessary to do its business
if the roads all over the town were as
good as Main street is from Ferry to Cen
trail. We are supporting hundreds OF
horses to drag loads through holes that
ought to be filed, over sand that should
be hardened, through mud that ought
not to be permitted TO exist. We have
the misery of bad roads and are actually
or practically called upon to pay pre-
MUM for them. 1t would be demon
strably cheaper to have good roads than
poor ones. 1t is 30 here. A road well
built is easily kept in repair. A mile of
good macadamized road is more easily
supported than poor horse"
The expense of building good roads is
an important item, and the macadam is
too expensive for country byways and
crossroads, and, in fact, is only feasible
where travel is extensive. Macadam ~
feet wide and inches thick in the cen
ter requires $500 tons of broken stone to
the mile. The cost of stone varies from
20 cents to Sc ton, and this would bring
the cost of surface material up to 81, $50
to 81 900 mile A macadam road has
recently been made near Philadelphia
at an average of about $4,000 mile for
six miles, but there was good founda-
ton to work on. At Bridgeport, Conn,
forty miles of good macadam, 10 to 20
feet wide, including grading, cost trifle
under So, 900 mile.
The committee on improvement of
highways, Rhode Island division of the
League of American Wheelmen, recently
received two important letters upon the
subject of good and bad roads which are
of general interest. Ex-Governor Henry
Howard, Of Rhode Island, says
81 am very glad to learn that there is
some prospect of legislation in regard to
our faulty highway system. WheE l re-
turned from my first and prolonged visit
to Europe could scarcely believe that !
had all my life been familiar with such
roads as met my eye on my return. In
no part Of my travels had | seen roads 80
poor as is the rule in our country towns;
and l had been in some out of the way
places, too. Va are more wasteful in
this respect than in all other things put
together. Comparing the rural sections
Of Europe with those of our country,
there is no doubt, l think, but that horse
there performs double the duty he does
here, and therefore is worth twice as
much. 1t would be the highest economy
to put all our roads in a permanently
good condition. When it is once done
the annual expense is as nothing To the
money which is expended now without
any beneficial results. There is no class
to which highways are 80 advantageous
as to farmers. If they could be induced
togive the subject sufficient consideration
they would soon put stop to this eyre
gious folly of working out the tax"
The president of the Rhode Island Do
mestic Industry society writes;
'As to the matter Of highway i'm
provements, think it is of the greatest
importance to the prosperity of our ag-
ricultural communities that some change
should be made in their care.
"At present in some parts of our state
there is a gradual shrinkage in the value
of our farming property, owing. in my
opinion, to the want of better highway
communication.
SIN my own town, Scituate, we have
about seventy-two miles of highway,
divided into about sixty road districts,
and in some of these districts, fear, the
road taxes have been expended on the
working out or standing out plan. Last
spring, at our annual town meeting, 1t
was decided to make change by APP
pointing road commissioners, the num-
Der not 10 exceed three. This change
takes effect this coming spring, and l
hope that suitable road machinery may