The record-union., 1892-05-28
OF COUNTRY ROADS.

ferred to the agitation of the street and
road question, that is now general
throughout the United States. This
journal conceives it to be the most i'm
portant economic discussion, outside Of
fiscal and foreign policies, that has gained
times. We revert to it, therefore, with
the profound conviction that if it can be
continued until it results in substantial
reform, it will prove a supreme blessing
to all the people. In its consideration
we should make it practical by locally
applying it.
We have said that market town ap-
preached by bad roads is practically
walled in; that rural communities bur
dened with bad roads are unduly and dis
astrously taxed. If we assume that in
Sacramento County there are 100 miles of
dirt roads that augment the cost of trans
portation of people and products so
much as 80 per cent, compared to the
speed, time and lessened output
of motive power attaching to good
hard roads, we have loss
to the people of this county
of not less than 100000 a year, exclusive
of the wear and tear upon vehicles and
horses. If the loss to the people of
single county is so great, some idea of
what it is to all the people of the United
States may be conceived. 1t is, therefore,
economy of the highest order to conserve
good road building. But it is more, for
good roads are important factors in civil
ization. Mr.. Potter, in the Century Mag
GItae, considering the question as one of
civilization and refinement, finds the
roads in the United States TO be of such
low grade that our civilization on that
theory must be rated low.
Mr.. Engineer Bell of Brooklyn, in his
Sd7aitarlun1, remarks upon the astonish-
ment of Americans in Europe, who OBJ
serve the enormous loads drawn there
by horses and dogs upon the public high
ways. The wheeling capacity there is
due not to superior horsefesh, but su-
perior road surfaces. Grades are we'll
managed, curves for best drainage given
all attention, and smooth surfaces of least
resistance to wheels is the chief essential.
Added, are frequently shade trees to af-
ford shelter from heat and add to the
beauty of the landscape.
In California the rural roads must for
great many years be of dirt, gravel, and
later of macadam. Dirt roads being of
soluble surfaces are most easily rendered
difficult of passage, and in dry weather
by reason of yielding character present
constant obstacles to the easy rolling of
the wheel, and the. use of lessened power.
The natural soil, therefore, forms the
poorest road as a rule. Graveled roads
are next in order, but unless these have
good substructure and the large, round
pebbles are removed, they, too, present a
constantly resisting surface to the wheel
Macadam and the roads-made upon good
substructure-of broken and irregular
stone that will crush, and free from the
round stones that will not pack or pull
verize, makes the best country road, and
therefore the most economic.
Where no other than dirt roads are
possible because of financial inability. it
is essential, says Mr.. Bell, that all atten-
ton be given to drainage of the road sur
face. 1t is the one thing that can neither
bedispensed with nor neglected, for water
is the most active destroyer of country
roads. Where clay predominates, not
only side bitches but central drains
should be provided, the latter of course
10 be made of cobble, broken brick or
stone. There are not in California a half
dozen dirt roads with these center drains,
yet their construction would save time
and power to an extent that would pay
the cost ten times over in one year.
The mixing plentifully of gravel and
sand with the surface soil of the dirt
road is great economy, as it gives TO
some extent a self-draining surface
layer. The more sandy the soil the less
the necessity for deep drains and high
crowns. Where the community can
summon the courage to make the rural
road of macadam, well and deeply put
on, well drained and rounded. the re-
suits are money-saying and money-mak-
ing, and are only less in degree where
the graveled road is substituted.
Putting the cost of country road at
any sum whatever between the maxi
mum and minimum of experience in
road building, and estimating time.
speed and lessened power gained, it viii
always be found that there is no commu-
nifty that cannot afford to build roads of
some degree of excellence. The entire
question is, then, one of economy, and
the whole direction of debate of the sub
iect should be towards converting the
people of both market towns and rural
sections to the truth of absolute, steady,
never ending cost and loss OF poor and
greatly resisting roads, and to the money
making and money-saving that lies in
investment to construct roads that make
least demand upon motive power, permit