Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-02-22
Good Roads for the Town Of Paris.

Good Roads for the Town Of Paris
OF all the questions that have eveI
come in the town meetings, the question
of good roads, that Is to come up at the
next March meeting, Is the most i'm
portapt.
There is an article in the warrant to
i, provide for the purchase OF stone
crusher and q steam roller, so that our
road building in the future may be done
with the most improved machinery, and
In scientific way.
i Any one who has lived in this town for
the last twenty-five years or more, and
who has ridden over our roads, will
|agree with me that the roads are but a
little better than they were twenty-five
years ago. A few steep hills have been
cut down, and few wet places have
been filled in with stone in a permanent
manner, but the greater part of the
many miles of road in our town are but
very little better than they were then.
Meanwhile, our valuation has largely in
creased. The business done in our town
is several times as much, we have auto
mobiles and electric lights, our farmers
are connected by telephones, the rural
delivery brings the mail daily to the
most remote farms, science and progress
is manifest in all branches of business,
but our roads, the great highways for
business and pleasure, are almost the
same as quarter of century ago.
The most important thing in any town
is good roads. The whole country is
waking up to this fact, and all over the
country there is progress in this direc-
ton and more intelligence and more
money is being used to make the roads
permanent and not to do over and over
again every year what We did last year,
but 10 do once for all in a permanent
manner, so that when a piece of road is
fixed it is settled for many years, if not
| forever.
THE WAY 1T HAS BEEN DONE IN THE
PAST.
have no fault to find with the pres
ent order of things, and do not find any
fault with the expenditure of the town
money when we consider what tools we
have to do with, and the conditions un-
der which the work is done. Paris is a
large town and there are great many
miles of road to be fixed every spring,
and it is not possible with the amount
of money that we raise to fix our roads
permanently as they should be with the
tools we have to work with.
As soon as the frost is out of the
ground we take six horses and four or
five men and start out on the spring job
of fixing the roads. We take the road
machine and plough the cutters into the
middle of the road, and make heap of
soft dirt in the center of the road that is
almost impossible for heavy loaded
teams for some little time after the road
has been fixed. After few days this
road is passable for decent loads, but
not until several weeks has passed are
the roads as good as they were before
the road was touched. A few weeks
more of good roads and then the snow
comes and covers them up again. The
next March the snow goes off and there
are four to six weeks that it is almost
impossible to haul anything like de-
cent one horse load with a two horse
team. All hauling is practically at
standstill, and no farmer attempts to
haul anything that is not a positive
necessity during that time. Meanwhile
his horses are standing in the barn eat
ing up the profits of his winters work.
WHAT WE CAN HAVE IF WE WILL VOTE
FOR 1T.
Now suppoSing 1t was possible for the
farmer to begin hauling over the roads
as soon as the snow was off the ground
and make use of the month or six weeks
that he cannot now use TO advantage.
This would mean an enormous saving to
the rest of the people that use the roads.
The greatest item of expense 10 getting
the farmers wood, logs, pulp-wood, etc,
to the market or the railroad, is the cost
of transportation. As it is now, there
is very little hauling lumber or logs on
wheels, compared with what is done in
the winter, and no one ever thinks of
attempting to do any hauling during
"mud-time." Surprising it was possible
to begin to haul the wood, pulp, etc., on
wheels as soon as the snow went of, and
to haul over a good stone road, and to
use these four or six weeks that are now
the least profitable of any. 1t would
mean an enormous saving to our farmers
if they could spend the whole time cut
ting their wood and yarding it up to the
road at the nearest point, and then use
the team that usually has to stand in
the barn to haul this over good hard
stone road as soon as there is 80 little
snow that he cannot work in the woods
any longer.
To carry this argument still farther,
supposing that the road was 80 good
that an automobile farm cart, or power
wagon could be used, taking double the
load, and going two trips where it is
bard to make one now. This is done
where they have roads that are good,
and it can be done in this town as we'll
as anywhere else.
The cost of horses is getting to be a
serious matter and 1t is a question
whether the poorest farmer can afford to
keep team or buy power farm wagon,
if we had roads that would allow the
use of them. With horses at $500 90 a
pair, and the constant risk of losing
them, believe that the horses would
have hard work to prove that they were
as profitable as machine and good
roads.
This is no fairy tale, or dream of what
may be century ahead, it is what is
actually being done in other places, and
all the reason we cannot do 1t here is
that we have no good roads.
Large lumber operators have found
that the most important part of lumber
ing is to provide good road the first
thing. II you are familiar with the
numbering operations that are being car
ried on in our Maine woods, you will
know that very large amount of money
is spent in laying out roads, cutting
down the hills, filling up the hollows,
and putting the road into shape to haul
immense loads over it.
The larger and more successful lum-
Der operators do not hesitate at the cost
of the road, for every foot of the lumber
must 60 over that road, and every cent
that they save in hauling makes differ
euce of an immense amount of money.
More than one logger has failed because
he hesitated to lay out money enough to
fix the roads as they should be, where
another man would spend hundreds of
dollars on the roads and come out of the
woods in the spring with good profit.
What is true in other towns is true here,
and what the private lumber operator
finds to be profitable will prove to be
profitable to the town also. anticipate
that more objection to this proposition
will come from the farmers than from