The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-06-17

Senator Homsher. OF Lancaster,
Claims Solution For Improved
Highways.

Senator John. u. HOmsher, of
Lancaster county, who with DIR.
Donald McCaskey and other Lam
caster CONTAINS are enthusiastic
Igood roads advocates and have
[given the subject Of roads improve
ment considerable study, claims
that good roads under the present
generation will come through the
improvement of the present dirt
roads and the proper Building of
dirt roads, instead of waiting
until the high priced macadam
highways can beAbuilt with state
aid.
"Long ago became convinced, I"
said Senator Homsher recently,
ssthat if wewere to have good roads
in our day and generation we must
seek some other methods Of doing
the work and some other material
than macadam. While stone roads
have and perhaps always will have
Ian adaptability for certain districts,
where on account of the lack of
facilities for good drainage, or
where the character of the soil is
such that good earth roads cannot
be made, or for thoroughfares
where the travel is great and the
valuation is high enough to stand
Taxation, the expense is far too
great to make them practicable for
even a small portion of all the
roads.
I'VE have good example of the
cost of the making and keeping up
of stone roads in the turnpikes of
1.-THE state. Except at cel tain points,
where the travel is concentrated,
as roads into cities, the pixies have
not on the average been paying or
prosperous to the stockholders.
Many of them have been abandoned
because they did not pay. This
shows that two cents mile, OF the
toll charged, will hardly pay the
Interest on the cost and keep the
road in repair. And the cost must
be paid either in toll or in taxes.
SIT must be rendered that, no
matter how good a stone road is
constructed, there is a certain
amount of wear and tear each day
land month and year. The amount,
of this wear has been found by ex-
perience to be from one;fourth to-
one. half a year. Other observa-
ItiOns have shown the amount of
material consumed and therefore toI
be replaced is one cubic yard per
mile for each collar or beast of
burden passing over it per year.
lOthers have figured at only
two thirds of a cubic yard per year.
1--WE also have the experience of
city street making. With all of
their great valuation to tax, cities
have found it burdensome to keep
lup good paved or macadmized
| streets.
"Mind | am not speaking against
macadamized roads. They are, so
far as our knowledge of road
making now goes, the one thing
for thoroughfares Or other places
where the valuation will afford
them without burdensome taxation,
and for places where good earth
road cannot, on account of local
conditions, be made, but what we
want is good roads now, and the
Question is how to make them with
what money is available.
81 think it is the wrong policy
for township that. has only from
two to ten thousand dollars q year
to spend on roads to lay it all out
ION mile or two of stone road,
when by the right methods good
earth roads could be kept up over
the whole township with the same
money or less.
"The solution of this / am con-
yinced is in learning how to make
earth roads. / believe that by
by proper methods of roadmaking
the earth roads, especially in places
where the nature of the soil and the
facilities for good drainage are
favorable, can be made and kept
as good. or better on the average
than the stone road and at but al
fraction of the cost.
'sThe nature of the soil and the
facilities for drainage are so varied
that it is impossible to lay down
any one rule or method of road
making. At some places nothing
but macadam will do, but there
are many, many other places where
the earth roads can be made equally |
good. In fact, in places where the
soil is just right-that is, porous
enough to let the water through.