The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-03-23
COUNTRY ROADS.
A Plan for Business.Like System Of
Repairs.

hePdlTS.
Evidences abound in every part of
the country that people of all oc-
equations and pursuits are considering
carefully the results to be obtained by
having highways hard and firm for
travel at all seasons of the year.
farmer in Kansas states the case truly
when he says that there is no one that
appreciates good roads more than does
the farmer" and he states that last
spring they had enough experience
with bad roads to set anybody think
ing. He says: I'VE can't go to town or
any where else till it gets to be
grounding case;' then we hitch up
and drag through, the mud rolling up
over the wheels and making great fur
rows in the roads. Then, when The
spring rains come, the water runs
down the hills in those burrows and
washes out great bitches in the mid
die of the roads. 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 get
ting stuck in the mud or pulling sim
gle tree in two, OF 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 i'm
prove the roads by a thorough system
of maintenance, no matter whether
they are continued as dirt roads. or
whether gravel, shell, stone or other
substance be laid upon them to inn
prove them. 1t is often thought, but
most mistakenly, that IL a road is ma
cadamized, 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. re
quires constant watching, in order to
keer it at it's best and get the maxi
mum results from it. This not only Sc
cures the highest efficiency, but the
greatest economy of service. Country
roads can be immensely improved by
having them cared for constantly by
experts, and hiring competent persons
to attend them, instead of depending
on the WORKOUT, inefficient, eXtrava-
CANT and unbusinesslike plan of "work-
ing out" road taxes.
In order to have better roads tn n
now exist, it is by no means necessary
to eXpend thousands of dollars in maxi
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
settled districts in which they are not
practicable, on account of the relative
ly limited amount of travel. In such
places, and under such circumstances,
1t is quite possible to get along with
out them, and actually to do very well
by improving the common earth roads
and instituting a scientific system 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 fundamen-
tai requisite of good roads is thorough
drainage, and this means both surface
drainage and subdrainage. There must
be suitable cutters on both sides of the
road water must be carried away
from the road and prevented abso-
lutely from penetrating under it, 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
whereby some one man, or few rfen
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 necessi-
ty II roads are to be kept good. This,
| Of course, means that working out"
road taxes must be done away with
forever, and a business-like money
system adopted in it's stead. This is a
necessary preliminary to decent roads,
and once put into operation is more
! economical, efficient and satisfactory
than the old way, and If properly com
bined with suitable system of road
maintenance will, in short time, i'm
mensely improve the roads of the dis
trict in which it is employed.-L. H. p,
, in Country Gentleman.