Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-10-28
ROAD MAKING IN CIVILIZATION.

i"ciS VI ohe HylhR wheel may pass out
of public memory.
ROAD MAKING IN CIVILIZATION.
The history of road making, if proper
ly written, would be the history of the
civilization of the world. Until Pompey
swept the pirates from the highway of
the sea the international commerce of the
world was smalla and perious. Until Rome,
which was the greatest of all road-build-
ers In ancient times, had built her roads
from end to end of the Italian peninsula
she was exposed to successive invasions
by the Gauls. the Carthaginians and the
Macedonians, but when she had extended
her superb highways to the utmost East
and as far as to the north of Britain she
had established a colossal empire, which.
because of its roads, she might thence
forth hope to hold. Even when the Ro-
man empire fell at the invasion of the
barbarian Goths and Nandals, these same
roads continued to make some inter-com-
munication between the warning Gothic
Kingdoms possible, and it was the DOS
sibility of commerce that kept alive the
industrial arts aud led to slow, often
interrupted, but constantly progressive
development of the new civilization.
At the present time it may be said in
broad way that wherever civilization is
farthest advanced there the highways
are the most numerous and best main
tanned. This observation holds, not
withstanding the multiplication of rail
ways, for railways themselves are high
ways of commerce and of personal trav-
ell, and it will be found that where rail
roads are most numerous and best equip
ped, other roads are likewise best con-
structed and best maintained.
On the other hand, where roads are
bad the value of the property is low,
commerce is stagnant and enterprise is
absent from the community. At GER
tain part of the Mississippi river, flow
ing between two great States, the land on
one side is worth $50 per acre; on the
other side it is worth $40 per acre, and
few miles back from the river It can be
bought for so. Why this difference?
The condition of the roads tells the sto-
ry. On one side they are good and well
maintained; on the other side they are
bad and sometimes impossible. We do
not say that the condition of the roads
in two places which are distant from
each other only few miles is the only
cause of difference. What we do saw is
that the condition of the roads indicates
condition of society and a consequent
value of property which is far higher in
one case than in the other.
Much has been said of late of the wear
ness and dreariness of country life, and
of the consequent tendency of farming
people to crowd into the great cities
But how can life in country places be
otherwise than lonely and dull when it
often happens, tor months at time,
that to visit the house of ones next
neighbor is matter of labor and vexa-
tion to both man and beast: Make coun-
try roads better and country life would
be happier. Fewer farms would be
abandoned, because farm life would he
far more tOlerable. We think we can
show, also, that farming would be far
more profitable.
No one who knows ill-lept country
roads-'drt roads, as they are properly
called-can doubt they are as costly to
the people of the vicinity as if they had
been meant for luXuries. throughout
the winter season it often takes a whole
day for team to 90 a few miles. 1t
would be very moderate calculation to
say that every farmer, from the begin
nlng of December to the end of March.
loses on an average two hours per day
of the time of horses and men, owing to
the condition of the roads; that is, he
loses, at very moderate computation.
twenty-four working days, or nearly a
month, during which he feeds both men
and horses and pays the men besides.
But that is not all. His vehicles have to
be built TO suit the roads. They are
| clumsy and heavy. The horses that pull
them can draw them only with lighter
load, even in the best weather, than they
could draw with ease on lighter vehicles,
and in weather but the best the condition
of the road makes it impossible for an
ordinary team to pull load of ordinary
weight. Thus time is lost In another
way, since three or four trips must be
made when two or three would suffice if
the roads were good Again, the violent
pulling and straining wears harness and
vehicle more than twice as fast as is nee
essary. 10 say nothing of the injury to
horses, bad country roads are dead ex-
pense to all who use them. They waste
time, they ruin property, they hinder
traffic, they prevent commerce, they
are ruinous to social life, the landed
property through which they pass is