Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-27
COUNTRY ROADS.
As Rule They are Double the Width

= 1Sul0 1ney are double the Width
Necessary for Travel.
In the Prairie Farmer we find the follow.
ing sensible article written by Professor
]. F. Elsom upon this subject:
Nothing adds more to the beauty and
appearance of country than good roads,
Nothing lessons the bills for blacksmithinp.
horse doctoring and general repairing SO
much as good roads; nevertheless road
making, as generally understood in most
sections of the country, seems to be but q
united effort to evade the main issue and
get rid of the poll tax for the time being.
Generally speaking, those who are in
trusted with the superintendent of road
making know as little of the science of the
subject as they do of the man in the moon
or of the agricultural products of Central
Africa, and care great deal less.
As rule our country roads are double
the width necessary to accommodate the
travel. They are usually sixty-six feet
wide, while only twelve or fifteen feet are
available for the purposes of travel The
rest often valuable land, becomes barren,
weedy waste, constant reminder of the
shiftlessness and laziness of those having
the matter in charge. No attempt is made
to carry off the water but the road bed is
built up out of the water by scraping up
the alluvial deposits in the bitches into the
center, leaving on the sides deep gullies
that are menace to the loaded wagons
turning out. These gullies during the
spring and fall are filled with water, and in
summer adorned with unsightly weeds,
seeding and spreading over the adjoining
fields. On the very apex of this ridge the
driver carefully and painfully picks his
way, skillfully avoiding the ditch on either
side, for, once in it, getting out again is q
matter of time and strength of team, We
hicle and gearing.
What we, as farmers, generally under.
stand as improving road consists in haul
ing little more soil from the bitches and
piling it up in the center of the roadway.
When we have thus improved(?) the road
it looks rather more like garden bed than
highway. Our country roads are more
than twice the width of English roads, but
with Us not more than one-fourth the space
is fit for use, the rest being delusion and a
snare, while every part of the roads in Eng
land is available and is used.
The science of road-making presupposes
drainage as the primary requisite. 1t is
much easier to make way for the water to
| run down hill than to pile up the earth un-
| til it reaches line above high water msrk.
| The natural bed for road is slightly differ
ent from what we would naturally select for
garden. Something that will not make
mud during wet season is wanted. Gravel
or broken stone. one or the other, should
be used in road making if it can possibly
| be obtained, even at considerable trouble
and expense. II good drainage is secured,
and the proper material used, there is no
necessity of having the roadway so round
ing as to make it unpleasant for travel.
Just sufficient fall to carry off the surface
water is all that is necessary or profitable.
| If road is made very rounding, all
| taor,,u ora n mos nop,p ollod IN baoy, 70
the center, and it is soon worn into ruts,
| there being often but one track, but, if a
road is made nearly flat, every foot is used
| 1t wears evenly end no rutS are to be seen.
Every inch of a road should be kept in
perfect order, and if we cannot afford to
keep road of sixty feet in good condition
let us be content with one of thirty or even
twenty feet, and fortunately twenty feet is
all that is needed on the most frequently
travelled country roads. Twenty feet will
allow two double teams to pass very easily
on each side of buggy standing in the
center of the road. Such roads would look
narrow and contracted; some might think
they would disfgure the landscape. This
| however, is mistake as those who have
visited countries " here such roads are the
| rule will testify.
Remove the dirt from the read. bed to the
depth of foot Fill the space with stones
cover these with few inches of gravel OF
very coarse sand, and perfect road is the
result-s road that, with occasional dress
ings of gravel, is practically perpetual
Such road will cost something-often viii
cost like fury, but it is better to make few
rods each year than to waste labor in scrap
ing dirt about,ss is seen in most places, ant
which amounts to nothing, aye, worse thar
nothing, except to work out the road tax
We make roads as we farm-we spread
over too much superficial area. As con
sequence the results are what the boys cal
1 "foo thin ~