The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-12-02
WORKING THE ROADS.
Prcscn: system of Repairing Is u Case OF
Labor Lost.

Present system OF Repairing Is n Case OF
Labor Lost.
AS II general thing the country roads
on this continent have been so badly
located that to build costly pavcmcnts
1pon the present lines and previously
provide elaborate systems of drainage
would be II dreadful waste of money.
AS it is ordinarily beyond the means of
country people to do more than improve
the present condition of their roads
this is the task that they should under
take as soon as possible
In beginning such task the first
step to be taken, i'll my opinion, is to
stop that which has generally been the
custom of this country-thut is, work
ing the roads. Working the roads, as
it is usually practiced in this country,
consists in calling out in each road dis
trict II gang of men who work out"
their road tax under an ovcrseer elected
by the people. The labor is worse than
thrown away, for it is rare indeed for
either the oversecr or the men under
him to have any clear comprehension
of what is needed
Fortunately for the wcll-being of our
roads these men do not work very hard,
but rather choose to regard the few
days on the road rs a kind of holiday
outing, n picnic frolic and IL means of
getting rid Of a certain amount of tax
If they really worked with all their
might they would make the roads al
most as impossible in the summer rs
they now are in the winter and early
spring. With some kind of glmmer-
ing idea that bitches on each side of a
road arc good to have, they pillow up
these bitches, together with the sod
that grows down into them, and pile all
of this muck in the middle of the road.
This material, it may be said, has a
most excellent fcrtilizing value, and if
1T were put upon the fields instead of in
the roads it would amply repay the
farmers who carried it away. But in the
roads it is a sad and an Immediate
hindrancc to travel. Luckily the friend
ly 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 sutli-
cicnt to wash away these impcdimcnts
that have been deliberately placed in
the roads, the consequences are very
dusty roads during all the dry season.
In some ncighborhoods little more
ambitious than those generally to he
found they mend the roads by placing
gravel and broken stone upon them
Then the ovcrsecrs say that they are
macadamizing the roads. Without
thoroughly draining the roadbcd, To
put either broken stone or gravel upon
it is merely waste of money and
labor, and the ambitious ncighborhoods
SO doing prove in the end no wiser than
those who cover their roads with
muck. But it is within the means of
every ncighborhoodi in the United States
to materially improve their roads at
oncc-improve them so much that
where the traffic is not extremely
heavy and continuous the roads will be
in tolerable order nine months in the
year and very much better than at
present, even when the frost is coming
out of the ground ut the beginning of
spring. And this can be done in three
or four or five years without spending
one penny more than is now spent in
the hurtful methods mentioned. -Har-
per's Weekly.