Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-10-11
MAKING POOR ROADS.
MISTAKES THAT NEED ONLY COMMON
SENSE TO CORRECT.


| CuIverts-Width of Il1sI,wnys
In his annual report to the Maine
board of agriculture for 1900 j. A. Rob
erts called attention to some mistakes
in road building which are apparent in
nearly if not every state in the Union.
Among other things he says:
There is one mistake that is made,
but l hardly know how it can be cor
rected except by using our common
sense and not letting our selnshuess
run away with us. This mistake is
the appointment of the wrong man for
road commissioner. The common sense
view of the matter to me is this: You
should select the man in town who
knows the most about it. Any man
who has done anything in any line of
work ordinarily Knows more about II
than other men who have not He
knows what the difficulties are; he
learns something from his experience
which no man can learn in so thorough
a manner from observation.
1t seems to me that in the choice of
our road commissioners we should al
ways have in view the best man for
the work whether he belongs to your
party or to my party, whether he is
particular friend of mine or not and
without regard to whether | am to get
a job or not. In many of our towns
men are apt to use their influence for
the man that will give them a job on
| the roads.
Another mistake that l find is in the
matter of drainage. Men will build a
good appearing road all right in shape
and put good material into it, but they
forget to underdrain it, and the drain
age is as essential as the drainage of
land upon which you raise your crops.
If you take a piece of land and cult
vate it and do not drain it. you are apt
to get poor crops. The light and air
and heat cannot get in. But if you un
derdrain the conditions are changed,
and that may prove to be your most
productive land. The same holds true
Of a road. If it has not proper drain
age, this should be the first thing to be
considered.
Another mistake | have found is in
! the construction Of the waterways. |
have seen men make little crossway
for the water to run through that n
woodchuck could hardly crawl through
when 1t needed one that was two or
| three feet each way. a little waterway
like that will answer the purpose of
dry season, but in wet time it soon
| aIct 1,n do is.
that there will be a washout of greater
or less extent, and the road builder
must spend more or less money in re-
pairing that road, when If he had taken
the same money and made his water
ways large enough to meet all condi-
lions he never would have had this
washout.
l believe there are thousands of these
waterways in the state of Maine today.
l know personally of a great many of
them in roads over which | have travel
ed. l think one Of the great mistakes
that our roadmakers are making today
is that they are not putting into the
runways for water size enough, and,
further than that, find that some men
do not build these waterways as they
would put in a foundation for a build
ing themselves. If they were to build
large barn, they would make the foun-
dation solid and secure, so that it
might stand there as long as the barn,
but they are careless about these cross
ways and put them in in such a way
that oftentimes within five years they
have to be taken out and new ones put
in at an added expense.
Since the advent of the road machine
l find another mistake. l have in my
minds eye today road made this year
that is exceedingly narrow. The first
thing that will come to your mind as
you go upon the road Is that it Is an ex-
ceedingly narrow road, and on each
side is deep ditch. We could endure
the narrow road-wide roads are not
necessary in most parts Of the state
where there is simply carriage travel
but this road has bitches of such depth
and its shoulders are so square that by
going a foot or two to either side the
wagon wheel will be off in the ditch,
and you run considerable risk of being
tipped over. | have Travelled over that
road considerably since it was made,
and l know that when two carriages
meet it is a difficult matter for them to
pass without their being disturbed In
their position, and If a carriage meets
a loaded team it is impossible for the
loaded team to turn out without risking
tipping over. 1t cannot do It on ac-
count of the shape of the road If two
loaded teams should meet on this road,
hardly see how they would get out of
the trouble.
Another mistake that the roadmak-
ers are making is in the material that
is put into the roads. l saw road
built this year with road machine
which passed up one side and down the
other and drew into the center of the
road all the sods which were the result
Of the growth Of the grass there for
number Of years, all of the leaves and
dead grass in the bitches and the worm
out soil that had once been a part of