The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-12-03
FARM AND GARDEN.
PRACTICAL THOUGHTS.
A New York Farmers Sensible Idea ON
the Road Question.

INC NNOdh
The time was when stones were
thought to have value for fencing pur-
poses, but now many farmer would
gladly give his old walls to anyone who
would make a clean job of removing
them. Others, more progressive, would
do the drawing, provided some yawn-
ing chasm was opened near at hand 20
receive them, where they would be for
ever out of sight and doing some good.
There are thousands of miles of coun-
try highways that need only thorough
undertaking, properly rounded sur
face and the necessary cutters to take
care of the surface water to make them
permanently good roads.
1t will be remembered that the worst
pieces of road are apt to be very hard
and smooth at certain seasons, and if
we get rid of all trouble caused by too
much wet, freezing and thawing in
Guided, we make that certain season 10
months long each year.
Let the commissioners of highways
select portions of the road most in need
of improvement and where the land
owners would agree to fill ditch with
stones if the town would do the dig
ging and covering. The ditch should
be in the center of the road, properly
graded and provided with outlets, the
same as if draining the land was the
sole object. The width and depth of
the ditch should be governed by the
needs of the case and the amount of
stones available for filing. The depth
of earth above the stones is also a mat
ter of experience and Judgment. The
above is not new theory or untried ex-
pertinent, a portion of my farm road
having received similar treatment
many years ago, and still proving sat
lstactory. In many places where
stones are not to be had. free or other
wise, tile draining would do the roads
more good than the same cost expended
in any other manner.
Our road-reform scribes and orators
are pretty unanimous on one point, viz,
that good roads cost just $4,000 per
mile. But none of them ever tell us how
many miles of road we have, or how
much the proposed improvements
would cost per acre. Where roads are
laid out in squares of one mile each,
every $40 acres calls for two miles Of
road, costing at the price named above
$3l.25 for each acre. Such improving
as | have indicated could be done at
o cost to the town of one dollar per rod,
exclusive of putting in the stones-$320
mile, just one dollar per acre of adj
joining land. Any enterprising town
could stand a few miles of such road
making every year, and what are now
its worst roads would soon be its best.
Some expect to see all surplus stones
crushed by machinery and used on the
roads, but, besides the cost, not one
quarter of the country highways will
ever have enough heavy traffic on them
to make good roads of broken stones.
A strong argument in favor of MAX
ing our own roads in our own way. and
at the least cost, is that we may thus
have some good roads to use while we
are waiting for law that will provide
state engineer to instruct county
engineer to direct the town engineer to
have his subordinates survey and map
out their respective localities and send
the results to headquarters, in order
that somebody may, at some time, tell
US how, if not when, we may have good
roads.
Perhaps people generally are looking
too far away, and too high up, for i'm
provement in roads. A town can do
any ordinary piece of work for less eX-
neuSe that would he reouired for the
county to do the same. A supervisor
gets twice as much per day when the
county pays him as when his own town
is to foot the bills. Unless the state
should make roads more economically
than it does the capitol and other state
works, the less state roads the better for
all concerned, excepting, of course,
those who would thereby be given easy
places with good pay. l have seen ex-
Gov. Flowers road object lesson at
Clinton prison, made in part by convict
labor, and wondered much whether it
cost the state any less than if done by
contract with a private individual.
Much of the road improvement litera
ture of recent years bears indications
of being furnished by those who have
never taken off their coats to do any real
road work.
Generally speaking, the easiest way
to right a wrong is to write" it, and it
does seem as if there were some people
who make it religious rite to do that
kind of reforming.-J. A. Clark, in n.
Y Tribune