Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-09
THE MAKING OF ROADS.
France Leads in Northumberland Has
Bad Ones and the United States Worse.

LII MA INU oT 1tCkAbSs
France Leads in Northumberland Has
Bad Ones and the United States Worse.
Joseph Pennell, the artist. has a recent
article entitled What | Know About
Roads" He says some of the vilest roads
he has ever ridden on are in England.
This will be news to many people who
have looked on English roads, especially
in comparison with the highways of Amer
lea, as being well nigh perfect. He says
there is not a 100-mile stretch of road in
England that is In good condition, and not
a foot of it anywhere that is as well kept
as it ought to be.
Whether this is true or not, there Is no
question of the fact that America can
double-discount England or any other
country In vile roads. The American
method of ~road-making is singularly well
adapted to the production of the poorest
possible kind of road. In most counties
In the United States a road tax is levied,
but the farmer or other person taxed has
the option of working out his road tax, SO
much being allowed for a man and so
much for a team each day. AS a general
thing in the rural districts labor is more
plentiful than money, and so the making
of roads Is left entirely In the hands Of the
farmers along the road, and even when
money is collected that money is expended
by having more Of the same kind of labor,
and none of this labor is ever under the
direction of anybody who knows the least
thing about road-making.
In Canada this state of things is as bad.
The tax is reversed there-that is, a GER
tain amount of days of statute labor is put
against each person, and the person has
the option of paying In cash 81 for each
days work, if the person does not desire
to do the working himself, or hire it done.
The roads are under the charge of a path
master who is appointed annually and has
charge of a certain district. The path
master knows nothing whatever of the
theory or practice of making roads. and
never has an instance been known where
he e~ndeavored to learn anything about it.
The working out of statute labor is looked
on both in Canada and the United States
as a grand holiday, where neighbors unite
and work just as little as they possibly
can, loafing a great deal of the time under
shade trees and swapping yarns and Cos
sip. What work is lone is the digging of
useless bitches that lead nowhere and the
piling of the dirt in the center of the
road where it makes, when the fall rains
come, one great heap of unfathonable mud.
This goes on year after year, and the con-
sequence is that the roads in the rural
districts of America and Canada are the
worst that possibly could be made.
As the adage says: They do these
things better in France, and Mr.. Pencil
tells US how it is done in France. Every
mile along a French road you will find a
man breaking stone into pieces about two
and a half inches square. These piles of
broken stone are arranged symmetrically
with a roof on each pile. These men work
at stone-breaking in spring, summer and
sweeping the road with great long brooms
and piling up the dust for future use or for
sale. A loose stone or lump of dirt on a
French road is absolutely unknown. In
October these broken stones are laid evenly
on the road and the interstices are filed
up with smaller debris from the pile and
then clay or chalky earth is spread over it.
The whole is thoroughly saturated by
water thrown from the hose of an engine,
which runs the steam roller, and up and
down over this mass the heavy steam
roller passes. pressing it into the most per-
feet road-bed that is known. The roadway
IN France is wide enough for two or three
teams to pass. There are rarely any fences
by the French farms, but on each side of
the road is a small dyke built up to pre-
vent the water from running from the
farms onto the roads. Near the dyke is a
deep ditch and between that and the road
a grass plot that is kept In perfect order.
Every 100 feet or so there is a trench cut
in the grass plot that allows the water to
run from the road into the deep trench and
so the roads are kept perfectly drain
ed. All the distances are marked
off by stones about two and "a
half feet-high. On one side of the stone
you see the name of the next town.
with its distance in kilometers, and on the
other side the name of the important
town you left. On its face you read grand
ronte No. so-and-so, and below the name
of the great city from which it starts and
great city to which it goes. and the dis
lance to each by road. Every hundred
meters you will see a white stone with the
number inscribed on it.
If every county in America were to APP
point an efficient road engineer who knew
something about the theory and practice of
roadmaking, and the whole statue labor
or road tax labor were intelligently en-
ployed. even under the present system,
something might be done to make the
roads of America other than a reproach to
the country. 1t is an important question
and has much to do with the welfare of
every community. Nothing is more nee
essary than perfect roads throughout the
country, and if Mr.. Pencils article has
called attention to the reckless system
which is In vogue In America In building
roads, it will do a very great.