Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1901-08-16

done by order of the town road commits
sioner and that he would not have done
It If he had known. This summer the
roads in this part of the town have been
in charge of new selectman working
as he says, under the supervision of the
road commissioner. Against my earnest
protest the work began last year of plow-
ing up the sod on the side of my house
lot and carting It away, together with
the alluvial soil underneath, was con-
tlnued. 1t has left near my residence
deep muddy basin in place of the green
that reached nearly to the road.
But this is not wholly a private mat
ter. If 1t were l would have nothing to
say here. Besides 1 do not know how
many there may be utterly incapable
of comprehending how anybody but
crank and a fool can care for the diff
ference between a deep, wide ditch
which will fill with mud and water at
times, crowded up next to his house
enclosure, or a margin of grass instead
OF course the law gives road commits
sioner, or other person in charge of the
highways, authority to take whatever
he judges necessary for the use of the
road which he finds within it's bounds,
but there is kind of comfy generally
observed by these officials towards farm
ers and householders. II there were not
shade trees and fruit trees within the
limits OF the road might be destroyed.
From the top of the hill north of NJ.
o.. Howe's to a point below the railroad
crossing was a hard road composed of
| gravel. Into this road the wheels of the
heaviest loaded wagons never cut deep
| ruts at any season of the year. The
road bed was as near like what our
| state road commissioner has recommend
ed to be constructed for permanent road
as can often be found without having
ba
pose. on to this hard road was dumped
| the soft soil taken from the basin near
| my house, together with much more of
| the same sort, filling the hill from the
| top to some distance below the rail-
| road crossing to the depth of from eight
| inches to more than a foot. All the
| road needed was the deepening and wild
ening of the bitches, with pick and drill
| If necessary, and slight repairs upon the
| surface Instead the muddiest kind of
| soil TO be found anywhere between Brat
| tleboro and Jamaica has been carted on
| to 1t. A teamster who has driven over
| the road twice a week for more than
| year thus describes the material Two
| or three days after the rain of last week
| ordinary loaded teams cut ruts in II
| from four to nine inches in depth and
| had great difficulty in getting up the
| hill. An automobile was stuck in II
going down hill, and the two riders were
| obliged to get out into the mud and
| borrow a shovel. They were not, how
| ever, compelled to use 1t. Being light
ened of its load. and the face of the
machine being turned towards the ditch
where one wheel rested on the same ma
terial that composed the old road-bed
II was able to pull through.
At a time when all roads pack dowr
this one will do so. But after heavy
rains. and in the spring and fall 1t viii
| cut into ruts until the pressure of wheels
and the washing of rains carry 1t to the
bitches partly TO fill them up and partly
| to be washed away
NJ. o. HOWE.