Repair Of Highways

If it be true that $40,000,000 isspen in this country every year on road re pairs, then indeed we get very little for our money. The extravagance of thi bill, however, is due to the fact that so many of the roads are irreparable. They are not made right in the first plaoe and no arnuunt of mending can mak them right. The indignant citizenswho are miret in them at frequent intervals or whos houses are fouled in dry weather by th dnst of them demand that they be bet tered, bnt instead of getting au enginee to lay off a really good road with easy grades and proper bed and with proteo tions and gutters the rural townspeople thinking to save money, put the matte into the hands of some person who knows no more about roadmaking than a child, and he dumps a qnantity of Band over the broken place. This sand packs down and for a little while seems to improve the highway, even though it is deeply rutted by the wagons that are carefully driven in each others' tracks in order tosave the horses, trat i is not long ere the raina and winds anc ordinary travel have done their work and the road needs mending worse than ever. We would think it absurd if wespen $20 to patch a $10 coat, or if we were to get a stonemason to make repairs to a cabinet, yet exaotly that sortof econo my is seen in many of the country dis tricts. Now the material for making a mile of good road where all conditions are favorable need cost only about $50. In deed, if a township bought the quarry outright it would cost less. Stone tha has to be crushed or hauled for a dis tance of course comes to inore, but there are, many places, especially in the south and west, where $50 will cover the ex pense of material for a mile of road and the road itself, after we have addec the labor and the use of the roller, can be reokoned at less than $2, 000 a mile The road once made is there forever. I may require a new surface from time to time, but if laid off by a practical en gineer who secures it by its grade and convexity against the wear and wash of rain and wind it will endure until some oataclysrn changea the face of the whole country.