Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-06-01
! GOOD ROADS NOTES !
The Money Value of Good Road

announces that the people OF
that State have expended over
s6, 900, 600 in the last ten years on their
common roads; most of the money has
been wasted in continual repairing.
Many of the roads have no natural
drainage. They are bad roads par'
or all of the time. The Survey mas
made a careful estimate showing that
it costs the people of Maryland 49,
900, 900 year more to do their haul.
ing over poor highways than it would
cost if they were turned into trst-rate
roads.
This estimate supplements the in
formation collected by the Department
of Agriculture. in 1895, when it re,
ceived data from over twelve hundred
counties from all over the country and
found that the average cost OF hauling
ton load one mile was twenty-five
cents, while the average cost in six
European countries that possess i'm
proved highways was almost exactly
one third as much. More than one
factor enters into the cost of hauling,
but the main reason why our farmers
pay three times as much per mile as
European farmers pay is that they can
haul, on an average, only one ton over
poor dirt roads, while the European
farmer hauls from three to four tons
at load over fine highways.
No one knows the total mileage Of
our common roads, but their length in
New York State is estimated at 1884,
900 miles. The more important high,
ways of Massachusetts, have mileage
of 10000 miles. All students of high
way improvement agree that the con-
dition of most of the common roads in
America is about that of the English
roads, early in this century, when
they were so bad and toll rates so high
that the question Of improvement was
forced upon the British public. Eng
land had no railroads. then, and if ii
had not been for the wonderful de-
velopment of our railroads the ques-
tion of highway improvement would
have come to the front long ago in this
country. The people, however, are
more aud more impressed every year
with the fact that road improvement
is necessary to reduce the cost of haul.
ing, to make roads fit for pleasure
driving, and to save the enormous
waste of labor now expended on bad
roads. When we fully understand
that there is no economical way to
obtain good roads except by building
the best, our practical education will
have made long step.
This lesson has not yet been learned
thoroughly. Many of our so-called
good roads are not the best and, there.
tore, are not economical. The men
who built them would have done bet.
ter work and spent no more money if
they had profted by the experience
Of England and France.
Maryland has gone about the work
of road improvement in way that
promises excellent results. The State
has recognized the fact that geological
considerations are most important
factor in good road-making. In 1898
the General Assembly passed a bill
for the annual expenditure of $40, 600
by the Geological Survey in the inves-
tigation of road construction in the
State. The first published result is
this comprehensive report on the dis
tribution of the rock material required
for good road making, on the failure
of the "improved" roads to meet the
needs of modern traffic, chiefly owing
to the fact that they were built with
out competent engineering super
vision and without care as to grades
and drainage, and on many other prac-
tical matters. The report will help to
place road Improvement in Maryland
on an intelligent basis. 1t should
likewise promote the cause of good
roads throughout the country. New
York Sun.