The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-02-09
GOOD ROADS.
WHAT NORTH CARDINALS DOING
IN THE MATTER.
An Important Subject Upon Which In
terest IS Gradually Awakening
Twenty-three Counties in The State
Now Working Their Roads Wholly
Or In Part by Taxation.
(Southern Farm Magazine. }

(Southern Farm Magazine.)
In North Carolina twenty-three
counties are now working their roads
wholly or in part by taxation. In the
work of matchmaking and general
road improvement Mecklen burg
county, the pioneer in that line in
the State, still leads, and has now
nearly seventy miles of excellent
macadam road. Wake county has
also made considerable progress.
| Durham, Rowan, Cabarrus, Guilford
and Alamance counties are also
doing some exceedingly satisfactory
work in the way of macadamizing,
| while number of other counties are
grading and relocating roads under
recent satisfactory legislation. These
facts are obtained from a letter of
Prof. j. A. Holmes, State geologist of
North Carolina, to the Southern Farm
Magazine. Prof. Holmes has been an
advocate of good roads for many
years. He is the author of the re-
port to the United States Agricultural
Department on the subject of road
improvement in North Carolina,
from which the folio wing facts have
been derived:
In Mecklenburg county the gen
eral plan adopted, and which has
been adhered to, was to start at the
city limits of the county seat and to
grade and macadamize all of the i'm
portant public roads from this point
out toward the township and the
county limits. These roads have a
width of 40 feet for the first miles
from the city limits, and beyond this
point width Of thirty-six feet. They
have maximum grade of four feet
to one hundred. For crossdrains
sewer pipes are used in all cases
where practicable, and strong wooden
bridges with stone piers have been
put in wherever needed. In attain
ing the above grade in places where
it was impracticle to change the
location of the road cuts through the
hills have been made to a depth in
places of from ten to fifteen feet, and
fills have been made which in places
have height above the ordinary
ground surface of from ten to twenty
feet for distance of few hundred
yards to half mile. In macadam-
izing the following general plan
has been adopted: Upon the graded
and settled earth surface a macadam
road twelve feet wide and about nine
inches thick is constructed, usually
in the centre, though in places on
one side of the road. An excavation
from four to six inches deep is made
in the earth's surface, and the bot
tom is then carefully rolled with a
steam roller. Upon this excavated
surface is placed layer of field stone
about four inches thick, and this is
then thoroughly rolled. Upon this
surface is placed three-inch layer
of stone crushed to from one to two
inches in size, and after this has
been thoroughly rolled there is
placed third layer about two inches
thick, of finely crushed stone, in
Guiding screenings, and this latter is
in turn thoroughly rolled.
The average cost of these roads,
including the macadamizing and
grading, is about $4,000 per mile.
Much the larger part Of the work for
the permanent improvement of the
roads in this county is done by con-
| Wet labor. The average number of
cohvicts, employed is about eighty,
and the average cost of this labor
per convict, including their food,
clothes, medical attention and guard
ing, is from twenty to twenty-five
cents per day. In charge of the
work is one superintendent and one
engineer during part of the time)
and six guards. Usually the convicts
have worked in one squad; at the
present time they are divided into
two squads. The rate of taxation in
the county at the present time is
eighteen cents on the 800 worth of
property, and the entire amount
raised in this way for the support of
the convict force in road improve
ment work during the past year was
about $4,000. In addition to this,
each township levies a tax varying
from seven to fifteen cents on each
800 worth of property.
Mecklenburg, as stated above, re-
quires all able-bodied citizens along
| the public roads either to labor four
days of each year on the public roads
or to pay the sum of fifty cents per
day in lieu thereof. This class of
labor is used upon the roads in
dependent of the convict force, and
principally in the work of grading or
in the general repairs of those roads
or portions of them upon which the
| convict force is not engaged.