Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-06-29
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
; GOOD ROADS NOTES. B
Secret of the Road Bnildipn Art.
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secret OF the Eoau BuiluiDc Art
Henry I. Budd, the State Commits
sioner of Public Roads of New Jersey,
has issued an annual report for 1898
that is powerful sermon in favor of
road building; and that should con-
vert even the farmers of Bergen County
to belief in the value of good, hard
thoroughfares properly maintained.
The report is adorned with hand
some views on the "before and after
pattern. They show the hog wallows
through which Jerseymeu had to drive
formerly and the macadamized pave
ments that they enjoy now.
Under the "aid law" the State pays
one-third of the cost of improving
roads, if certain provisions are com
piled with by the county. This law
in 1898 gave New Jersey S4s miles Of
new, good roads.
The method of building nowadays
Is not an~expensive foundation of large
stones. Experience has shown that
the earth, properly drained, is as good
a foundation as can be had, and the
principal construction in the State has
been resolved into roads four, six and
eight inches deep. These are built
at cost of from twenty to seventy
cents square yard, with an average
of from fifty to sixty cents. The con-
tract price of stone roads ranges from
$4,000 to $4,000 per mile and gravel
roads as low as $1400.
In building, the State favors a sys-
tenn of continuous avenues, and now
possesses q nearly completed line from
Atlantic City to Jersey City.
Farmers are finding out the benefits
Of good roads, which formerly they
opposed on account of the cost. In
Gloucester County teams that with
bad roads carried only forty to fifty
baskets of vegetables or fruit now
carry 130 to It's. SO bad were the
roads that much produce had to go to
market by boat By using his own
team and carting an average load of
$50 baskets the farmer now saves $40
per day on freight and incidentals,
and about Sc to commission mer-
chant, as, bringing in the load him
self, he markets it himself. All the
Gloucester farmers have withdrawn
their objections to good roads. This
principle applies throughout the State.
The novel proposition OF Secretary
Wilson, of the Agricultural Depart
ment, to lay down flat steel rails for
wagon roads is favorably commented
on. They would give the farmers
smooth and hard roads at all times of
the year. The material costs about
$4,000 a mile for long distances, and
for ordinary country roads at fifty tons
per mile the cost nee1 not exceed
$1,000, the expense of grading and
laying to be added.
Successful farming depends upon
good roads," says the report. ga
farmer should ship from a farm of 100
acres at least $50 tons annually. To
haul this to market on a good wagon
would require, at six tons day,
twenty-five days. Allowing SO day
for the team and man, the cost of this
transportation would be $75. Upon
an average poor road it would take
seventy-five days for one team and a
man to haul this produce, which, at 50
per day, would amount to 1925, II
would then cost $3.50 more to carry
the annual products of this farm over
poor road than over good road.
Here is where the money goes.
A. J. Cassatt is quoted as saying
that the cost of maintaining a good
macadam road under the wear of
rural traffic is not over $40 per mile
yearly. Trap rocks, it is said, where
obtainable, should always be used in
road making, as they are harder and
tougher than the best of other rocks.
A protest is made against the high
ways being used by trolley lines. In
stead of going upon the wagon roads
Mr.. Budd, thinks the companies should
obtain their own right of way like
steam railroads.
The time is rapidly approaching,
Mr.. Budd thinks, when the automo-
bile will take the place of the horse
and bicycle in New Jersey. This ac-
centuates the necessity of covering
the country roads with macadnm,
which will not be destroyed as with
the picking of the horses feet and the
hard tire of the ordinary wagon wheel,
but made smooth by the pressure of
the rubber tire.
Dirt roads, the report says, are the
most expensive. Petroleum is sug-
gested as a good application to sup
press dust, and by excluding water to
keep the road good in wet and dry
weather. Steam rollers are advised
instead of those propelled by horse.
Tires six inches wide are advised in
stead of the regular one inch and q
half, the draught power needed being
less and the wear of the roads less.
This is a fact not generally known,
but shown to be so by experiments.
Railways and Roadways.
When railway company undertakes
| TO extend its tracks or to mt in n