The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-01-04
GOOD ROADS.
A Blue Earth County Resident Adds
Some Information to the Subject.

the Pioneer Press, December 14th last,
but on account of our crowded col
umns we have been unable until now
to reproduce it. 1t is filled with eX-
cellent suggestions on the subject and
it will repay careful perusal:
VERNON CENTER, Blue Earth
County-To the Editor: have a few
words for you in answer to inquiries
about condition, improvement, ETC., of
roads in this county. For some years
past dry seasons have for the most
part prevailed, and in consequence,
without effort on our part, we have
had good roads. But we have no roads
that will stand the test OF wet weather
The fact is, we live under poor SyS-
TEN Of rOad-making and we can't ex-
pect good roads. Another difficulty
that stands in our way is the poor
material which we are obliged to use.
1t of necessity must be the adjacent
earth, which in most parts of this
county is a black loan, from one to
two feet thick, underlaid with hard,
impervious clay. TO make roads Of
this loose soil precludes the idea of
permanent, satisfactory ways for
travel. So, in dry time, our roads
are good; when wet time comes they
are surely bad, and when very wet
they are just about useless. With
poor material to work with and poor
laws to work under we can certainly
not expect tirSt-clasS roads.
If, however, all highway improve
ment could be done on some thorough
plan, a vast advance over present con-
ditions could surely be reached. The
surface water should be we'll looked
after. There should be none left
standing anywhere within the road
limits. The roadbed should be wide
and high, from one and half to three
feet above the common level, and
twenty to twenty-five feet in width
and gently rounded. The bitches
should be wide and seldom less than
two feet deep, and often much deeper
to get drainage. The roadway should
really be an earthWork, longitudinal
mound, all the material inside the
four-rod limit having been used in
making it. The bitches should be very
close to the outside line and formed
by gradual slope. The earth for two
rods in width on both sides of the CEN
ter line belongs to the public, and
there is little danger of using too
much of it Now, if our highways
were built On some such plan we could
feel that we had done something; that
we had moved long distance forward
in the line OF road-making.
But many of our roads are built
with little idea Of any plan at all.
The roadway is too narrow, the drain
age is not thorough, the bitches are
too near the Travelled track, the turn
pike is too fiat and too low. There
has been much storytelling, too much
sitting in the shade; too much road
tax never worked at all, and the roads
as you drive over them silently explain
the whole business.
Many times a want of respect is
shown to the public highway. Work
on it is left rough and incomplete. A
farmer plOWS up convenient piece OF
it for the purpose of securing his pillow,
with little thought of what he is do
ing except TO make his pillow shine.
Fields adjacent are plOWed across the
ditch that drains the highway, clear
up to the travelled track. Sometimes
both sides of the road for a long
stretch on level ground are treated in
this manner, taking away all oppor-
tunity to use any part of the road ex-
cept the track in the middle, which is
liable to be slippery from wet, or per-
haps badly ruJted. OF course this
blowing Injuries the flow OF water on
the roadside. Such work is almost
criminal. But, if the overSeer were
sought after to make complaint, it
would quite likely be found that he is
the very man who did the blowing.
love trees, and there is something
grand in the thought of riding through
an extended avenue of shade trees,
with their long branches informing
ling above your head, and giving free
protection from the burning sun. But,
practically, on our dirt roads, they are
a great injury to travel. The ground
there is often wet when open roads
are dry; and consequently rutted and
rough when other places are smooth.
And in winter impossible drifts are
sure to form there, and the travel is
driven away through adjoining fields.
When spring comes, those huge drifts,
by reason of the shade, are slow to
leave, and as they melt away the
moisture for long time saturates the
roadbed, making livery difficult to
travel, however beautiful to look at.
A practice somewhat common here
is to cover the surface of the roadbed
with layer Of gravel, and it seems to
give slight permanence to the high
way thus Greated but heavy travel in
a wet time soon takes the gravel way
down out of sight. Perhaps, however,
the use of it should not be entirely
discouraged, when it can ne easily OBJ
tanned. There is but little good gravel
in this county anyway, SO it will never
make an Important item Of rOadmak-
ing with us. From what | have
noticed, l should say that it would
take an everlasting amount of gravel,
mixed with our heavy soil, to make a
road that will endure under all con-
ditiOnS.
| must not neglect to say that we
have some highways built on an i'm
proved plan, and are credit to the
towns in which they are located. [
think the people here are to good ex-
tent awakened. The latest improved
graders and ScraperS are used in most
parts of the county. The diSlntereSted
efforts of the state association for
good roads, with the literature sent
out by them has, [ am sure, done good.
Newspapers have helped, but not half
so much as they might. The truth is
the old method of road labor has been
kent far LOO long IT. has no friends