Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-05-25
AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN.
Interesting Letters from Hancock
County Farmers.

!
cock county farmers:
ELLswoRTH-The subject of good roads
is an interesting one, and ought to call out
long list of replies. l am no road
builder, but few men have travelled over
our roads more than ! have in the past
thirty years. 1t seems to me that we
should adopt the system of making roads
with the machine; make them just wide
enough for teams to pass. and have good,
deep bitches. Remove all rocks and stones
in the way of the machine. In this way
we can GO over the roads and make good
show at less expense every year think
commission of three or five good men
should be chosen by town, county or State
to see to the building of roads, one man
being removed and another chosen every
year or two years. | think we should
make general use of wide tires; on light
team wagons not less than two and one
half inches, and wider for larger ones.
Even our driving buggies would be better
and more lasting with wider tires, and be
help to our roads. Our city of Ellis
! worth has stone crusher (steam powerl.
1t has been in operation two years, and
we have splendid roads so far as we have
| made them with crushed stone, and the
expense does not seem to have been very
great for the amount OF good done. The
| crusher is set up some half mile from
any street The stone is blasted from
hard, tlinty ledge, then broken by hand
hammers to suitable size for the crusher,
then hauled over private, WORKOUT,
abandoned lumber road to the place of
deposit. Now here is a question. Would
it not be cheaper and better to set the
crusher in some convenient place, take the
stone from our fields where there are
thousands of tons of old tumb led down
walls, heaps, etc, and move from place to
place as convenience and occasion call? |
hope to hear from many of our citizens on
this subject Of good roads.
JAMES T CrsHMAN.
lSoTE-We believe In the use of the stone
crusher for our country towns. In many
tons 1t might be possible for two more
towns to unite In the purchase of n cru-her.
The work OF crushing could be done at such
places and at such times most conven-
lent for the parties interested The suggestion
to use the rocks scattered about our fields in
many places and on walls in others, Is a good
one.-SecretGrg
SOUTH DEER IsLE-For road improve
ment, first, more money should he raised,
so that the work will not have to be spread
so thin that it can't be seen; next, men
should be elected commissioners who are
interested to have good roads, and who
know how they should be made There
ought to be something like civil service
examination for the office. Men in all
sorts of trades are expected to learn the
trade before working at it: why should
not road building be trade? OF course
that Is a matter of education for a genera
ton, but why not begin? II the roads in
work on in April why not work ON them
then and not leave them till June or July,
when they SO hard that it takes two
days to accomplish what could have been
done before in ono2 Why allow all the
rubbish that accumulates in the roads
stones, etc to be thrown out on the sides
of the roads and left Farmers are often
advised to keep their roadsdes free of
weeds, etc, but how can this be done
when every time the road is repaired the
rubbish is thrown onto the ground by the
way and left? Then all sorts of weeds
and bushes find root hold among the
stones and spread themselves Indefinitely.
Too much half work is done. II there are
two bad places and only money enough to
put one in good condition, do that and
leave the other till the next year. II both
are half done the same thing will have to
be done over and over, year after year
| The same holds good in winter. Have
roads wide enough for teams to pass at
least often enough for the cuts to be in
sight OF each other. Last winter great in
convenience was caused in this town by
roads shoveled just narrow enough for one
team. X. S. WARREN.
SOUTH BRooKsvILLE-I am in favor OF
radical improvement in roads. The towns
do not raise money enough to enable their
| commissioners to make improvements.
Under the old system this town raised
Il 200, and this year under the new system
| they raised 1900, one fourth less This
amount will scarcely keep the roads passa
| BILE, and no marked improvement can be
made without larger appropriations do
| not favor State highway commissioner.
l would favor legislation to the end that
| towns should not raise less than a stated
sum per mile OF roads, which sum should
| be sufficient to keep the roads in repair
and make improvements from year to
| year. With such legislation l think a
State highway commission would be a
| Ms it,
to improvements should be widening and
Strengthening, which also means the re-
| moval OF all bushes and rocks from the
sides OF the road The road bed should be
| browning enough to shed the water to the
bitches. but with such gradual crown as
would allow carriages to drive out to the
ditch without danger of upsetting. The
best season to work machine on roads is
| May and June, and possibly September il
the ground is not too dry. Best time to
| cut bushes and hedges is in August as
they will not sprout up again as quickly
as at other seasons. Culverts have been
sadly neglected on our country roads
They are either clogged up, or are too high
above the road bed, or too low or too
short. Good roads must come, and if
towns will not bring it about voluntarily,
then legislation must.
ROBERT w. CONDOR, Commissioner
WEST EDEN-As it is so expensive that
| 1t would not be practicable to build many
macadam roads in the country, how would
this plan do for poor substitute? With
stone erusher that could be moved from
| place to place, crush quantity OF stone in
different parts of the town so as to have it
| handy; then as soon as mud hole APP
| pears fill it with crushed stone and let it
work into the mud. | think few years
of such treatment as this would cure many
! OF the "quagmlreS' that we have in the
spring. AMOS c. b. GoTT.
| HANCOCk-Ihe subject of road improve