Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1903-05-08
just The Roads

owing a big debt and not keeping
up the Interest. You work hard
during the year to meet the inter-
est and at its end there are no visible
signs of your years work. and yet
the same old debt is looking you
in the face.
In the spring We raise sand" on
our roads from one end to the 9TH
or, a kind Providence pats it down
with the May showers and bakes
it with the June sun, and from
that time until the November rains
return we can usually make the
buggy trot," when we 90 drying.
This is paying of six months
interest on the great road debt.
But then for the other six, interest
with a compounl relish eats up
what has been paid in and goes to
work on the stock in trade.
The floods of early winter come
and the sands that were put in so
recently are returned to the bitches
from whence they came, sometimes
gently, but frequently of sudden.
The bitches are filled and the ele-
ments with good willGgo to work
on the road bed. and for six months
you can not make the buggy trot"
but little. Then it is that man,
horse and vehicle suffer, and the
good morals of the country are
subject to a decided hackset On
we 90 for a six months, pulling
half loads, and making a losing
business generally, until at last the
spring time comes again and with
the return Of the birds the sand is
returned to the middle of the road
and so it continues from year to
year as long as there is any sand.
In addition to paying the inter-
est each year curtail the principal,
annually, if only but little, if you
want to pay debt.
Instead Of making six months
roads each year, by doing the same
work over and over, and having ii
'undone as often, let's make some, il
no more than half a mile in each
district, of twenty year road, SC
that at the end Of each year it can
be said thai We now have a mile
and half of road that will stand
ithe test.
Next year you don't spend any
money on that mile. You don't
s-haye to; it is there to stay and it
E'has been giving good, all-the-Year'
round services. You have curtail-
ed the principal to that amount
and what you would have spent on
that good mile in the remaking
Of it a six months dirt road, will
go toward making another mile of
permanent thoroughfare.
ICurtail, curtail,, year by year. and
in very few years, the Leading
tthoroughfares Of the three districts
.of the county will be metal roads,
paying legacy to the people and
a Joy forever.
Eight years ago." said an S. &
p. road man, 81 metale the Stone
lane q Crab Rnnli,' ana it has cost
the county nothing since. 1t now
needs some dressing, but no heavy
expense"
So it would be with our county
roads if ever the system of syste-
rniatically constructing a certain
amount of first-class road each year
would be adopted.
V It. is Il fact that the present
"sand in the rat hole" system is
the using of much money for a
temporary, very temporary, pur-
pose only, when this same money
lcould be used in a way that it
would abide.
Along this line, in recent adj
dress before the Deer Greek Farm
ers' Club, of Bel Air, Mary land
Mr. W w Crosby, road engineer of
Baltimore county said: while in
most counties, a sufficient revenue
Is now being ex pended on the roads,
TO make good roads eventually. if
properly applied, the fact remains
that the condition of the roads is
still wretched. a fact that is dis
tinctly discouraging. On the other
hand, the fact that the funds avail
able are sufficient to build good
roads, narrowS the problem down