Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1900-01-11
THOROUGH DRAINAGE.
This Is the First and Fundamental
Requisite OF All Good Roads,
Hard or Soft.

Evidences abound in every part of
the country that people of all occupa-
tons and pursuits are considering care
fully the results to be obtained by hav-
ing highways hard and firm for travel
at all seasons of the year. A farmer in
Kansas states the case truly when ne
says that there is no one that appre-
ciates good roads more than does the
farmer and he states that last spring
they had enough experience with bad
roads to set anybody thinking. He says:
eve can't go to town or anywhere else
till it gets to be sground-hog case;'
then we hitch up and drag through,
the mud rolling up over the wheels and
making great burrows in the roads.
Then, when the spring rains come, the
water runs down the hills in those fur
rows and washes out great bitches in
the middle of the road. Then, there is
just about enough road work done to
patch them up, only to be repeated
again next year. Why, we can't go to
church on Sunday without being afraid
of getting stuck in the mud or pulling
a single-tree in two, or something else
of the kind
Such experience is common TO every
farming district and to each section
in the land where ordinary Country
roads" exist. The only remedy is to
improve the roads by thorough sys-
tenn of maintenance, no matter wheth-
er they are continued as dirt" roads.
or whether gravel, she'll, stone or other
substance be laid upon them to i'm
prove them. It is often thought, but
most mistakenly, that if road is
macadamized, it will need little or no
care, at least for a number of years.
There is no worse error. Every road
or street, no matter how constructed
or laid, requires constant watching, in
order to keep it at its best and get the
maximum results from it. This not only
secures the highest efficiency, but the
greatest economy of service. Coun-
try roads can be immensely improved
by having them cared for constantly
by experts, and hiring competent per-
sons to attend to them, instead of de-
pending on the worn-out. inefficient,
eNtravagant and unbusinessiike plan
of working out' road taxes.
In order to have better roads than
now exist, it is by no means necessary
to eXpend thousands of dollars in MAX
ing substantial stone surfaces. Such.
of course, are the most satisfactory and
useful when circumstances permit of
their construction; but there are hosts
of places and localities and sparsely set
tied districts in which they are not
practicable, on account of the expense,
nor actually a necessity, on account of
the relatively limited amount of travel.
In such places, and under such circum-
stances, it is quite possible to get along
without them, and actually to do very
well by improving the common earth
roads and instituting a scientific sys-
tenn of maintenance for them.
In order to get good results from
common country roads, they, as a rule,
require to be thoroughly graded and
drained; for if they are not kept free
of water at all times, it is absolutely
useless to expect that they can be made
decent. The first and fundamental re-
quisite of good roads is thorough drain
age, and this means both surface drain
age and subdrainage. There must be
suitable cutters on both sides of the
road; water must be carried away from
the road and prevented absolutely from
penetrating under 1t, and the surface
must be kept smooth and even, so that
rain will Immediately run off into the
cutters.
After this is provided for, system
of maintenance must be established
some one man, or few men,
will be constantly employed in going
over the roads, filing up holes and de-
pressions, removing stones, clearing
cutters, and doing the thousand and
one things which are daily necessity
if roads are to be kept good. This, of
course, means that working OUT road
taxes must be done away with forever,
and a business-1ike money system
adopted in its stead. This is a neces-
sary preliminary to decent roads, and
once put into opera ton is more econom-
ical, efficient and satisfactory than the
old way, and if properly combined
with suitable system of road MAIN
tenance, will, in a short time, inn
improve the roads of the dis
trict in which it is employed.-C Country
Gentleman.