The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-03-31
Evansville Farmers Club.

/
Riverdale. Saturday evening. The club
took up the question Of good roads. The
) mCmterS present were: ]. ID. CaSSard. ID
NJ. Nesbit, Lloyd Dorsey. s W. BCall
Luther BrashearS, ". H. Muliikin, Or Il
S. Hill, Joseph \. Blundon and John
Snowden. The guests were Capt. II. W
Sylvester, President of the Maryland y gri-
cultural Col lege: DR.. Mcdonnell. DR.
Svmcns, Rev. Father Tower, +. \. Fuller
II. B. Fowler, Walter BendZ and Charles
Helm. \ collation. was served
The annual election of officers resulted
in Luther Brashcars being chosen prcsi-
dent and d. VI. Ncsbit secretary.
Mr. Joseph A. Blundon read the follow
ing practical paper upon Good Roads,
GENTLEMEN-No subject Of practical
and every day utility to the great public
living out of the city is attracting So much
attention and causing so much discussion
at the present time, as the subject of good
roads. The newspapers are full of it and
magazines have been exclusively devoted
to roads and their development. Legis
latures all over the country have been be-
sieged to take the matter in hand. People
generally are beginning to realize that, if
road-making is not lost art, it is at least
an art that has been sadly neglected.
The expression "All roads lead to
Rome" arose from The fact that road
making was SO vel! understood centuries
| u
roads radiating from the City like spokes
in a wheel, and extending 10 the farthercst
boundaries of Europe. which exist to this
day as models of what roads should be.
The roads made nowadays do we'll if they
last over Il rainy season. Important ar d
desirable as good roads are to al, classcs
to no class are they more So than TIE
farmers, who must constantly make use
! of them whether good or BAL in order to
get their produce 10 market. For this
reason | have thought that it would rot
be out of place for me to make a few re-
marks on eur own roads in this County.
The roads of this County are undeniablv
bad; doubt if All equal distance of bad
roads can be found anywhere. The ma
| iority of what is called read in this
| County might just as well be called by
any other name. Instead of being round
ed up in the centre with suitable side drains
the centre is usually the Lowest part, col
| Letting and holding the water and produc
| ing long line of mud puddles. 1t is not
for want of money that our roads are in
their present bad condition. Good roads
are not so very costly if the money is
legitimately expended and properly laid
out. Under proper management road
can be rounded up in the centre and side
drains made for about 800 per mile: and
give the earth chance to settle, we
would have fair roads, for, so long as the
| water runs off freely the chief source of
damage is obviated. The real trouble, it
seems to me, lies i'll the road system pre-
vailing in our County. Under this system
the Road Commissioners of the County
require the money to be apportioned and
expended by the local supervisors in the
|
is equivalent to simply throwing money
away. Under the last years appropria-
ton, the funds available for roads in the
Bladensburg district amounted to 81 $4,000
which was sufficient to have rounded up
and drained every road in the District,
and then left about $4,000 for filling mud
holes with gravel and for general repairs.
1t is impossible to say where this money
has gone. The roads certainly show no
indication of having been responsible for
any expense whatever. Another feature
| of our road system which cannot be too
severely condem ned, is the way politics
| is allowed to figure in the matter. 1t is
certainly to be regretted that orr road
supervisors should receive their offices as
a reward for political services, and not
because of their fitness for the work; Il
condition of affairs which renders them
! more anxious to make votes than to make
roads. Our object is to get good roads,
and the most important matter for use to
i consider is how to accomplish it, Proba-
bly, the best thing to do would be to get
ready with some definite and detailed plan,
have law passed whereby we will get
| the benefit of the money that is now bein g
spent to so little purpose. Personally, |
am very much in favor of the township
| system in force in so many of our West
ern States. One virtue of this method is
that the money collected in certain
locality is spent in that locality. For
another thing, | have never been able to
see any good reason who the idle labor of
our jails and work houses should not be
made self supporting by putting them to
work on piles of stone, using the material
so prepared for macadamizing our princi-
pal or main roads. The least we could do
would be to remedy the abuses in con
nection with the appointment of road
supervisors and to see that those who are
appointed are held to strict accountable
ty. | think that in IA very few years there
will be q great revolution in roa dmaking,
as there has been in the methods of con
veying messages by the introduction OF
the telephone and telegraph; and, strange
as it may seem, | believe that this revolu
ton will come about through the use OF
; petroleum. Unless | am Mistaken the
road builder of the future after having
; his road-bed rounding it up and fixing it,
side drains, will proceed to sprinkle it witt
crude petroleum. The effect of the petro
leum after several sprinklin-s being It
tougher the clay SO that it resemble:
: asphalt and renders it imperyious t'
: water. This notion occurred to me from
noticing the effect of Petroleum upor
the Pennsylvania r. r., bed which thu
,, Company sprinkles to lay the dust, tn,
results being that the ground has to
certain extent been hardened and thcr,
is in consequence first elias, bicycle tract
extending along sidc the road for miles