The record-union., 1892-04-25
COUNTRY ROAD CONSTRUCTION AT
THE WORLDS FAIR.

COUNTRY ROAD CONSTRUCTION AT
THE WORLDS FAIR.
Some one has said that bad roads lead
ing to market town are the equivalent
of a wall about the place with no means
of ingress. Systems of bad roads might
be more aptly styled absolute DEGREES OF
exclusiveness, forbidding trade to enter,
while good roads are open doors of cor
dial invitation.
Very recently the United States Gov
ernment issued fat volume of reports of
Consuls from all stations where we have
Consular service, upon highways and
streets abroad and their method of con-
struction. 1t is work of very much
value, More recently a leading magazine
of the United States entered upon the
publication of series of illustrated arti-
cles upon country roads, the first of
which we find to be of profound interest
A curious and attractive phase of the
paper is its calculation of actual loss by
the practical closing of road by mud,
unevenness or washouts. The cost of
keeping horse day; the average earn
ing Of horse each day it is employed; the
cost of idle driver or farmer for each day
of enforced idleness because of roads
closed by bad condition these are calcu-
lated to a nicely, and the result given in
dollars and cents is something amazing.
To this total is to be added the loss to
trade and industry in market towns, into
which bad roads lead, for each day on
which they are impossible. Then fol-
lows calculation of the loss to the
farmer, carter and hauler Of produce, in
time, horse flesh, harness and vehicle,
because of roads upon which the wheels
sink more or less below the surface COM
pared with the gain by the use of roads
upon the surface of which the wheels of a.
vehicle make little or no impression in
passage.
There is also an elaborate exposition of
the methods of surfacing good roads. in
which it is shown that the round pebble
is greatly more uneconomic than the ir-
regular bit of broken stone, since the lat
ter cracks and packs or pushes aside.
while the former remains a permanent
obstacle, checking progress, grinding out
holes in the surface, calling for a greater
output of motive power and consequently
involving its loss in a considerable de-
gree, to say nothing of the time lost to
the transporter and traveller and to the
trader.
We recall one road in this county very
much travelled and of the highest impor-
tance to this city, upon which round peb-
bles have remained upon the surface for
ten years, over which vehicles have all
that time jolted and horses stumbled, and
been thereby delayed and their wear and
tear increased. Yet it has never occurred
TO the county authorities that the removal
of these pebbles and cohbles would be an
immense saving to the people using the
road, humanity to horses, and a decided
economy for the county, since the grind
of these round stones wears into the
surface and creates holes that still more
impede progress.
These are mere glimpses of subject OF
the utmost Importance, one that at once
engages the attention of the observing
European visitor accustomed to smooth.
well-surfaced and well-kept roadways
OF course, in country so new as is this
8 high state of excellence in the matter O.
country roads is not to be expected as
yet. Nevertheless we have made very
little progress in the matter. Our high
ways are pretty much what they were il
the outset, dirt made; or, if graded. hav.
ing no proper substructure or drainage
system, and rarely, if ever, properly sur.
faced or kept. Even where they are
graveled the stone and clay is put on il
disregard of the approved methods which
are the result of hundreds of years of ex.
perience.
We cannot expect for very long tim,
to have roads such as are famous in Eu
rope, but while good deal in road i'm
provement has been done in the Atlanti,
East it is only a beginning. That, it ap
pears, is to be stimulated, however, by
systemaIized exertion, the results O
which are to be manifest in plans anG
examples at the Worlds Fair. An ex
hibit is to be there made that will demon
strate what has been our activity in de
vising for construction in the matter O