The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-15

in cities blocks of stone or asphalt can be
| laid, but not in country districts, on ac-
count of the cost: and the best ordinary
substitute for the country is angular bits
OF stone, so driven together. on the mac
adam principle, that they will no. be
moved by the pressure of wheels.
The Telford or the macadam stone road
| IS the ultimate aim of sound road reform,
but OF course it will take time and money
to make their introduction universal In
the meantime in new states we must learn
how TO build better dirt roads until we
can get rid of them. The fundamental
principle which underlies good dirt road
is positively dry and absolutely drained
roaabed. On this subject Of the prepare
ton of good dirt roads, e. p. Powell says:
Il IS impossible 10 make good road on
yielding soil Money spent IN securing good,
firm, dry roadoed will save q vast amount Of
trouble in attempting To maintain q good SUI
face and keep is clean. The construction OF
bitches or drains ia carefully to DC considered
before ali othsr points; although good drains do
not require an expert engineer. Most farmers
are good ditch layers akd understand the bust
ness. But orr roadmasters do not understand as
yet that the mere deposit OF gravel or Stag or
shsie on wet or yielding roa1bed will be OF no
value whatever, but Will speedily do more harm
than good. The coarser material Immediately
grinds about and works down into the soil,
creating instead of remedying the mud and ruts.
The worst possible performance is filling holes
with gravel o, stone. The almost universal
fault Of our country roads is that a strip OF
gravel is laid on just wide enough TO compel all
teams 10 follow in a single track, and SO doing
"a rritz at xril Ia n
ruts, aud wheels will work 1t into the track,
deeper aud deeper; and there soon follows
complete breakup. Then all that has been
drawn on to make a surface becomes q cutting
material. and the roads are worse than 1t
nothing had been done. The surface that is i'm
proved should be wide enough to allow teams to
move over it without following in a single line.
The cost of good macadam varies accord
. ing to the difficulty of securing material;
but the average cost should be about s.. 900
per mile for roads thirty feet wide, or s., 800
for roads fifteen feet wide. The country
roads proposed by the Richardson bill for
New York state are to be but nine feet
wide. at an estimated cost of possibly
5000 per mile. The cost of annual re-
pair of a well-built road need not exceed
$50 per mile. Our present road system
requires an annual expense of more than
double that amount, and little or nothing
to show for it.
Mr.. Powell and Prof. Shaler present an
unanswerable economic argument for good
roads by showing that every bad road
exacts a tax on the WAGNER in time,
labor, in wear or injury to the team. that
if properly reckoned will be found to
amount to far more annually, as road
way tax, than the interest on the money
needed for building q proper road and
keeping it in repair.
The wonder is that so practical people
as we are should not have been reused
long ago to the importance of good roads
IS a means of communication between the
producer and the market, since the differ
ence between the farm price and the
market price is the cost OF carriage. A
farming country is valuable just in pro-
portion to the ease and cheapness with
which products can reach the market.
Europe's roads were built long before the
advent of steam transportation, while our
attention was diverted from good wagon
roads by this new means of transportation.
Horse cars and electric cars supplemented
the steam railways.
The absence of good roads in the oldest
parts of America, where agriculture and
commerce are the principal industries of
the population. is a striking illustration of
the inefficiency and extravaganza of our
local government, so far as it attempts to
deal with the business necessities, con-
veniences and comforts of life.