The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-06-08
POOR ROAD SYSTEMS.
Mis- axes In the Location aud MANAGE
ment of Country Highways.


ment of Country Highways.
As a general thing, the country roads
on chis continent have been so badly
located that to build costly pavements
upon the present lines, and previously
provide elaborate systems of drainage.
would be a dreadful waste of money.
AS it is ordinarily beyond the means OF
country people to do more than improve
the present condition of their roads,
this is the task that they should under
take as soon as soon az possible. In be-
ginning such task, the first step TO be
taken, in my opinion, is to stop doing
that which has generally been the Gus
tom in this country-that is, working
the roads. Working the roads, as it is
generally practiced in this country, con-
sistS in calling out in each road district
a gang of men who ''worll OUT their
road tax under an ovcrseer elected by
the people. The labor done is worse
than thrown away, for it is rare indeed
for either the overseer or the men m
der him to have any clear comprehpn-
sion of what is needed. Fortunately
for the well-being of the roads, these
men do not work very hard, but rather
choose to regard the few days on tae
road as kind of holiday outing, a pic
mic frulic, and Il means of getting rid of
certain amount of tax. If they req ,ly
worked with all their might they
would make the roads almost rs I'M
passable in the summer as they row
are in the late winter and early spring.
With some kind of giimmering idea
that bitches on each side of road are
good tohave, they pillow up these bitches,
together with the sod that grows down
into them, and pile all of this muck in
the middle of the road. This material,
it may be said, has most excellent fer
tilizing value, and if it were put upon
the fields instead of in the roads it
would amply repay the farmers who
carted it away. But in the road il is a
sad and an immediate hindrancn TO
travel. Luckily, the friendly spring rains
usually wash it back into the bitches.
where it stays until some more tax is
to be worked out" When these rains
are not sufficient to wash away these
impediments that have been deliberate
ly placed in the roads, the consequences
are very dusty roads during all the dry
season.
In some neighborhoods little more
ambitious than those generally to be
found, they mend the roads by placing
gravel and broken stone upon them
Then the overseers say that they are
macadamizing the roads. Without thor.
oughly draining the road-bed, to put
broken stone or gravel upon it is mere
ly waste of money and labor, and the
ambitious neighborhoods SO doing prove
in the end no wiser than those who
cover their roads with muck. But it is
within the means of every neighbour
hood in the United States to materially
improve their roads at once-improve
them so much that where the traffic is
not extremely heavy and continuous
the roads will be in tolerable order nine
months in the year, and very much bet
ter than at present even when the
frost is coming out OF the ground at the
beginning of spring. And this can be
done in three or four or five years with
out spending one penny more than i.
now spent in the hurtful methods men
Weekly,