Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1894-09-27

WneTe nlSnWay improvement has been
reduced to system is especially valu-
able to those who are considering the
question. New Jersey was one of the
first states to take up the reform in
earnest, and perhaps we cannot use our
space this week to better advantage
than in quoting what the New York
Tribune recently said about the roads
in New Jersey.
"New Jersey roads bid fair to become
as noted as New Jersey mud has been,
and with as ample, though far differ
ent, reason. New Jersey mud has long
been famous for it's redness, it's depth,
its sickness and it's general depravity.
And there was time when mud and
roads were almost interchangeable
terms; save when dust took the place of
mud. Those conditions have now van
ished or are vanishing. The recently
constructed roads are as good as the old
ones were bad, and that is saying a
great deal. Only few years ago the
work of road improvement was begun
in one or two densely populated coun-
ties. But the general and local govern
ments have taken ii up with character
istic intelligence and zeal. County
after county has fallen into line. And
now the state is largely covered with a
network of hundreds of miles of almost
ideally perfect highways, at all times
of the year a delight to all who travel
upon them.
A conspicuous example of the energy
with which this work has been under
taken is furnished by Morris County,
one of the chief rural counties of the
state. Once it was reputed to have
about the worst roads to be found any
where In summer they were trails of
dust; in spring and fall narrow but end
less and bottomless morasses. In late
years many of them have been consid-
erably improved, but the crossroads
and byways are still unutterably bad.
Now the county has voted to bond it.
self to the full legal limit, $350,000 and
equip itself with roads as good as those
of its neighbors, Union and Essex.
That this will be of great advantage to
the whole county is unquestionable.
The cities and towns, such as Norris
town and Madison, will become far
more desirable and popular as places of
suburban residence, and the farming
districts will be not less benefited by
the increased ease of carriage and the
general growth of the community.
Good roads are the "open sesalnen
which will make this region and many
others accessible to and frequenred oy
thousands of people to whom they are
now unknown lands. Nor will these
be merely summer guests and transient
visitors. There will be material and
permanent growth of every town and
village, and, which is perhaps most i'm
portant of all, development of agricul-
tural interests beyond all previous con-
ceptions. 1t is perfectly we'll known
that many excellent farming regions
have been unprosperousa and have fallen
into neglect and abandonment simply
because of bad roads. If farmer lives
a dozen miles from railroad, and the
highway is 50 bad that his team of
horses can draw thither only half ton
of produce at a time, there is little cause
to wonder at his discouragement Give
him instead road on which one horse
can readily draw ton and the condi-
ditions are vastly bettered. Farmers
appreciate this fact, and realize the
value of good roads, and are as eager to
have them built as any one else. Years
ago they looked little askant at the
Newark -Irvington-M Millburn road, when
it was first constructed, as new-fangled
notion of doubtful worth. But they
used it, and now they want every road
in the state made like it; and if they
have their way, as they are apt to do,
it will not be many years before such
an end is actually attained.'