The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-06-21
WILL THE LESSON BE NEEDED?
When the Mud OF Winter Has Depart
ed, the Farmer Forgets 1t.

When the Mud OF Winter Has Depart
ed, the Farmer FOrgetS 1t.
The mud has dried up, and once
more the rural dweller emerges from
his retirement and cheerfully drives
to town over roads now firm and
smooth. Not through any effort Of
his, however, have the highways
been changed from bog holes and
quagmires into ''paths of ease. "
The rain fell and staid where it fell,
because there was no provision made
to get rid Of it IN any other way
than by evaporation. 1t would be
in the road yet but for the genial
spring sun, and so it has been and
seems likely to be, for all the farmer
seems to care.
Why not always travel in com
fort, no matter what the season of
the year: Why forget now that no
longer ago than April you could
only with the greatest difficulty
manage to traverse what was and
will be a ain dreary stretch of
mud?
Will the experience OF past years
of the yeXation. Of animals ruined,
of harness broken and wagons
wrecked, not suffice to awaken men
to the benefits of roadways con-
structeG to withstand the frosts and
SHOWS of winter and present an I'M
yielding surface to the heaviest
rams of spring?
One of the strongest arguments
in favor of macadam, telford or any
paved highways is that in not
Single instance where they have
been tried would the residents of
that locality return to the dirt road.
In no community has there ever
been word but of qualification at
the changed conditions. Their
benefits arc so speedily realized
and their worth so early apparent
that whilom detractors are fain to
sing their praise.
Fear of cost in construction has
no doubt a great deal to do with re-
tarding the good roads movement.
But it has been shown in almost
every instance that the cost does
Tot greatly exceed that of the pres
ent slipshod and hazard manner of
building and repairing country
roads. Roy Stone, in New R0ads
mil Road Lars, states of Ontario
county, n. Y:
"Within the last 80 years there
have been expended on the high
ways in this county oyer 81 200
per mile, and, with the exception
of few miles IN the town of Can
analogue, they are no better than
they were at the beginning Of that
period, and should the same system
be continued for the next 80 Years
like sum would have been ex-
pended, and the condition of the
highways would be Just about the
same as it is now. The few miles
referred to in Canaudaigua are
crushed stone or macadam roads,
built at an expense to the town out
side of the regular highway tax.
AS a result, they have in that town
10 miles or more of good roads, and
so well pleased are they with the
improvement that they have had a
special act passed by the legislature,
during the last session, empowering
the town to vote upon the question
Of expanding 81, 900 per year in adj
dltlon to the 1900 already allow
ed by law, in building such roads.
Those roads are just as good in De
cember or March as they are in
July or September. They haye in
creased the value Of the adjoining
farms many times the cost of the
roads, and the subsequent cost Of
keeping them in good repair will
be much less than the cost under
the ordinary system of keeping
poor roads in poor repair.
The question of cost, therefor, IS
no argument against permanent
stone roads, as the money thus ex-
pended is returned many times over,
not alone in enhanced property val
ues, but in the ability of the pro-
ducer to sell his grain orstock when
prices suits, he 10 longer being de-
pendent upon condition of weather
and roads to place them on the
= market.
SalbYspOrt.