The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1891-06-03
ROADS IN THE COUNTRY.
DEFECTS IN THE METHODS OF
MAKING AND REPAIRING THEM.
Cheap and Practical Measures for
Their Improvement-Tim Hints
on an Important Matter.

Cheap and Practical Measures for
Their Improvement-Tim Hints
on an Important Matter.
The greatest leading defects in the
present mode of making and "repairing'
the country roads, is the misapplication
of labor. Sods and muck are often
heaped from each side Of the track, form
ing a broad ridge or turnpike" on
which vehicles are expected to travel.
When long rains occur this ridge is con-
verted into bed of mud, and the higher
the ridge has been made the more copious
the mud, and the deeper the ruts are cut
by the passing wheels. The roads are
thus made worse by the work expended
on them.
We offer the following suggestions for
improvement, intended to effect i'm
portant results, without resorting to the
great taxes from which most of the tax
payers will shrink, and which may be
effected with a comparatively modest
outlay:
a. Monthly removal of all loose stones
in the road.
(2.) Bi-monthly removal of all fixed
stones.
49, Making the roadway only of the
hardest materials at hand.
a. Placing a tile-drain lengthwise
with and in the centre of the road.
o. Requiring all new roads, and all
repairs in old ones, raked or narrowed
perfectly smooth.
A few comments on these measures. The
loose stones (greatly varying), if removed
five times year, will be kept clear from
the track at an average cost of a dollar
for ten rods, more in some localities and
less in others. The fixed stones may re-
quire twice as much; but in any case the
expense will save many times the amount
in battered and fractured wagons, chafed
horses and fatigued riders. For secur-
ing hard and smooth track, remove or
scrape the soft, rich top-soil and turf to
the adjacent fields, where it will make
excellent potato land, and use the COM
pact subsoil. This will not cost over a
dollar or two a rod, and will make per-
manent hard track. A tile-drain would
not cost dollar a rod and would carry
off much of the water which makes
muddy roads if properly placed in the
track. This drain may be three feet
deep and filled foot with coarse grave
or broken stone on the tile, then finer
gravel, and either fine gravel or porous
earth to the surface.
The entire work of removing the
stones monthly, securing hard earth, and
laying tile drains, need not cost over
three dollars rod, or a thousand dollars
a mile, And under a faithful and skill
full charge, nearly all could be performed
with the present expenditure. There is
no doubt that the benefits to all who use
the roads would exceed in various ways
all the cost.
The great deficiency at the present
time is the common want of knowledge
and appreciation of good roads and how
to obtain them. Land owners drive over
the country, giving little attention to the
great difference between the two kinds
and to the means which could be en-
ployed for obtaining the very best. Even
IN those exceptional instances where the
natural soil is a porous gravel, which
could therefore be made easily into per-
feet carriage track, the surface is often
lett rough, or stony, or cut into ruts, or
spoiled with sods and muck thought
lessly thrown upon it. Every town
should have an object lesson, visible to
all, where II fine specimen could always
be seen, representing perfect road and
the way in which it could be secured
Such lesson, it is to be hoped, would
educate the rising portion of the COM
munity into just ideas on the subject.
.-C0anty Gentleman.