The Republican journal., 1902-03-20
THE ROAD QUESTION.

tenance of dirt roads, prepared by |
Maurice o. Eldridge, assistant director
of public road inquiries. 1t is timely |
and useful document. There are many |
sections where the expense of macad-
amizing or of obtaining crushed rock
or gravel compel reliance on dirt
roads; and this no doubt will apply to
the majority of roads throughout the
country. We believe it is also true
that many of those entrusted with the
care of these thoroughfares are ignorant
of the rudiments of bodybuilding, or
even of such simple propositions as
that water will not run up hill and that
it will find its own level Year after
year tons OF dirt and decayed vegetable
matter are shoveled or scraped out of
the bitches and placed on the roads, to
make mire when it rains and to blow
away in dust in dry time. Such docu-
ment as this from the Department of
Agriculture is, therefore, much needed
and ought to result in great good.
Mr.. Eldridge declares that the great
key to success in making good road is
drainage. Water is destructive to every
road, especially a dirt road, and some
provision must be made that will carry
away the rainfall or melting snow if
the road is to be kept in passable con-
dition. He also advises constant watch
| fulness as to the condition of an earth
! road, and he says that frequent inspec-
| ton and a little work will keep it in
better condition than it can be under
the ordinary methods. These few SEN
fences embody the essentials in main
/ tanning good roads. First, drainage;
then frequent inspection and timely
work. The old saying, "a stitch in time
! saves nine" is even more pertinent i'll
/ regard 10 roads than to garments. Of
! ten few hours work with a hoe would
save town tens and even hundreds OF
! dollars. That this is not done is not
: altogether the fault of those entrusted
with the care of the roads, but of Gus
tom, which dictates that work on the
roads shall not begin until the spring
rains are over and the ground has set
| tied. The pools which had then stood
| b. the roadside, to work underneath
and make a quagmire of the travelled
way, have disappeared; the torrents
that had overtl0Wed the insufficient cul-
veIts and quilted out the road have
diminished to trickling streams; the
clayey soil has baked hard Oh each side
| of the gaping rltS that had grown
| wider and deeper us they filled with
water in every rainstorm. A little work
with a hoe at the proper time would
! have prevented many of the WashOuts;
| the holes, in which the wheels of the
passing vehicles sank to the hubs could
| have been filled with small stones and
| the dirt filled over them while it was
soft, and the travelling thus greatly i'm
proved. But in many cases the men
who go to work on the roads know
! nothing of their condition in the early
spring. They scrape dirt into the holes
and repair the collapsed culverts, and
as the water has all disappeared do not
| find it necessary to pay any attention to
drainage. 1t is perhaps because the
roads only receive attention in the dry
season that not one culvert out of ten
/ is large enough to do the work required
| of it. This necessitates frequent re-
building. 1t would be much less ex-
pensive to build culverts of sufficient
capacity, and n many places it would
| be true economy to build additional
culverts, material for which is usually
close at hand or easily obtained. There
are sections of road almost impossible
i'll spring-time that could be drained at
very little expense; but year after year
teams are compelled to wallow through
mud, and expensive repairs are called
for, when both might have been avoid
ed. Then, too, many of our roads are
concave instead of convex. This re-
suits in the water standing in the mid
die of the road and making mud holes,
which are destructive to dirt roads,
! This road question is one that vitality
concerns the taxpayer of every commu-
nifty. Generally speaking our present
system is extravagant and inefficient.
! At the maximum cost we have poor
roads. There is urgent need for reform
in this direction; and it cannot begin
too SoOn