Brookings register. (Brookings, S.D.) 1890-1894, 1892-07-29
Look to Your Highways.
(Continued from last week.

LoOh hOuT highways.
(Continued from last week.
Mr.. Adams continues: at follows
that in all mountain regions and in
all lowlands which have been supplied
| by glacial action, or the flow OF wa ter,
courses, with stones in abundance,
good roadways are merely q question
OF time, money and intelligence; any
community may have them to the ex-
tent required, if willing to pay for
them. But for alluvial or diluvial
soils, destitute OF stones and gravel,
as on the western prairies and in the
Mississippi Valley the case is different
and little is to be learned from Eu-
ropean methods of road building. The
problem is surrounded by local diff
culties, which can only be solved on
the spot, II at al"
What then, are the conditions that
stand in the way of good roads in
South Dakota? First, it is obvions,
that for two generations at least,
South Dakota will not be in that
state OF economic and industrial
prosperity, in which the density
of her population and the wealth
of her people will justify the great
expense of macadam roads made of
stone brought into the state from
other places. Not considering towns,
which in comparatively short periods
will grow into prosperous cities and
provide Belgian or asphalt tpavements
for their streets. let us look to the ne
cessities OF the state at large, east of
the Black Hills, in those districts
where the supply of stone is limited
to such small quantities as will iurn-
ish only enough for the construction
of culverts and foundations for bridge
buttresses.
The system OF country road making
in operation in the state is expensive,
inefficient and unsuccessful to the last
degree; and as bad as it naturally is,
it's evil is accentuated by cause
which ia only now beginning to make
itself felt. The following is taken from
the Brookings Press Of Thursday July
21st:
"The real estate boom which South
Dakota IN general and Brookings
county In particular is experiencing
this summer is not conaldered with
much favor by the actual farmers.
They complain that the land is mostly
being sold to spectators who do not
live on the land they are buying, and
the townships where considerable OF
this land has been sold, are suffering
from lack OF men to work poll tax.
There may be good deal in this, but
the land will be in the hands Of good
farmers in a year or two"
The resident or the stranger, trav-
ersing South Dakota in a carriage or
wagon loaded or unloadsd, finds the
permanent roads, running along the
section lines, uniformly in wretched
order. The work expended on them
under the system in force has been
practically thrown away. The road
covering in dry weather is blown off
into the fields and in place OF a we'll
contoured road bed, he sees deep ruts
out of which it is impossible to turn,
when meeting another vehicle without
danger OF wrenching Off wheel or
straining and bending an axle, all
such strains on a vehicle, shorten its
lite and hasten the time when a new
one must be bought to replace it.
They put great stress on and fre-
quently break the harness and thus
compel the expenditure OF money for
repairs and replacement. They work
equal or greater injury to horses and
rarely fail to lead to disorders, dis.
eases and sprains which soon make q
horse unserviceable.
Our roads are not made-they are
worn. The section line being fixed
and the road thus marked, the ordi.
nary use and traffic does the rest.
When that time of the year arrives in
which the obligation of the poll tax
must be discharged, the work OF de-
struction and wastefulness is inaug-
urated with appropriate honors.
Men, teams and ploughs assemble and
thoroughfares, which were fairly good
highways before are broken up, and
remain broken up, impracticable and
destructive to horses, harness and
! vehicles, it may be for years or for.
ever-or until natures kindly forces,
more friendly to man than man him.
self, repair the ravages inflicted on
the roads by the ignorance, indiffer.
ence and recklessness OF the taxed
people.
ITO be continued.)