Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1892-04-22
Mistakes in the Management
of Country Roads.

|NN l6EaAQD III kAAO G--e~A--- = 49, ]
of Country Roads.
AS a general thing, the country
roads on this continent have been so
badly located that to build costly
pavemen,s upon the present lines,
and previously provide elaborate
systems of drainage, would be
dreadful waste of money. AS it is
ordinarily beyond the means of
country people to do more than inn
prove the present condition of their
roads. this is the task that they
should undertake as soon as possi-
bic. In beginning such a task, the
first step to be taken, in my opinion,
is to stop doing that which has gen
erally been the custom in this
eountry-that is, working the roads.
Working the roads, as it is usually |
practiced in this country, consists
in calling out in each road district
Gang of men who "work ont" their
road tax under an overseer elected
by the people. The labor done is
worse than thrown away, for it is
rare indeed for either the Overseer
or the men under him to have any
clear comprehension Of what is
needed. Fortunately for the we'll
being of our roads these men do not
work very hard, but rather choose
TO regard the few days on the road
as a kind of holiday outing, picnic
frolic. and a means Of getting rid of
a certain amount of tax. If they
really worked with all their might,
thew would make the roads almost
as unpassable in the summer as they
now are in the late winter and early
sprino. With some kind of a glim-
mering idea that bitches on each
side of road are good to have, they
plow up these bitches, together with
the sod that grows down into them,
and pile all of this muck in the mil
Idle of the road. This material, it
may be said, has a most excellent
fertilizing value, and if it were put
unon the fields instead of in the
roads it would amply repay the farm.
ers who carted it away. But in the
roads it is a sad and an immediate
hinderance to travel. Luckily the
= friendly spring rains usually wash it
back into the bitches, where it stays
: until there is some more tax to be
, "worked out" When these rains
are not sufficient to wash away these
, impediments that have been DELHI
t erately placed in the roads, the con
sequences are very dusty roads dur
! ing all the dry season.
In some neighborhoods a LITTLE
t more ambitious than those generally
to be found, they mend the roads by
' placing gravel and broken ston
: nson them. Then the overseers So.
! that they are macadamizing tn
roads. Without thoroughly drain
: inc the road-bed, to put either broke
e stone or gravel upon it is merely
waste of money and labor, and tn
r ambitious neighborhoOds so dom
n prove in the end no wiser than thos
y who cover their roads with mucl
/ But it is within the means Of ever.
neighborhood in the United State
to materially improve their roads a
J. once-improve them so much tina
n where the traffic is not eXtTemel
# heavy and continuous, the road
# will be in tolerable order nine month
4 in the year. and very much bette
IS than at present, even when the fros
2 is coming out of the ground at til
beginning of spring. And this ca
# be done in three or four OF five year
,e without spending one penny nor
,e than is now spent IN the hurtf'
In methods mentioned.