Good Roads

Country roads are the farmers' rallroads. It is on these that he gets to i 'Wii Lo do his and marketing-, to get his mail, to go to ehurch, in faet tt is on these that the average does the most of his riding. H(uv Important then that they should be put and kept in the best of order. They require much intelligent labor and thought, much more than is ut present apptied to them. About eight month.s of the year we have KOod to fair roads. The other four months they are horrible by spell.?. How tp ;nake them goud at that time of the yeai1 when they are liable tp be bad should be the aim of everybody that has the care nnd supervisión of our roatfs. In Washtenaw county there are about fourteen hundred miles of roads composed of clay and muck and sand. The aim and object of those who have the care and supervisión of our "lighways should be to make them good at that time of year when the conditions of the weather tend to make them bad. Farmers are apt to look with a great deal of suspicion on all who advocate better roads and concludc that our roads are good enough and nobodj outside of the distrfets have any rig-ht to interfere or complain. In other words, everybody gets ihe benefit f good roads and is wronged by bad roáds. Within a few years the road machlae has been extensively used and it ia rny opinión that as :; whole it is more injurious than beneficias to our highways. Good roads on clay and muek cannot be made alone with this machine and much less on sard. We know of a piece of clay road that had been traveled for over sixty years, on whicb many hundred loads of gravel had been drawn whlch was made almost nnpassable, so much so that the people of the eastern part of Lima vent nearly two miles out of their way to get cheir wheat to market in the vnonths of May and June, and novv after eight öï ten years' use it is nol as good as ü was before the machine was uiied. All the gravel tlrawn tor yens before the grading took place was tost. I cannot emphasize the tact too strongly that a vri-y Uttle clay will spoil a good deal of good gravel. If you don't believe it, look at Main stret from the ereek north to the State road south. The gravel draw n on this road has been ruined by this grading a id you will never have a good road agnin until you apply another coat of good gravel on top of this elay and keep il on 'u-p. Much of our roads could be kept in better condition if the r iad-scrapei waa kept entirely off. I know of a raile of clay road In the township of Ix-xtir. where the six-foot track ñas been kept fllled with gravel where all the work is laid out, and i: is about as good a road as J know. I ask you to look at Sand HUI betweei Charity Canfleld's anti the Ormar Clark Gravel is the only :naterial within one's reach that we c.m makt, good roads with- how important thL'.i that it should be intelligently au,! Judiciously applied, A gravel road is'like the Irishman's flannel shirt, wUo s.i:d it was always warm and dr; no matter how wet and cold it u good gravel road is always hard and dry, no matter how soft, wet and rnuddy it is. 1 am satisfled that as .1 rule turnpikes are altogether too wide. Very few need be more than Bixteen feet for a doublé track and fourteen feet would be better; remember, they grow wider by use; ten feet is wide enough for a single track. It will take trom three to four times as much gravel for a doublé track than for a single, and also remember that one good single track is worth moro than two ïxior, doublé ones. You will be astonlshed how much easier H is to keep a narrow track n order and how much ijuicker it will become good in thawing and freezing weather. r want to cali yoi r attention to a pieee of road enst of here near Samuel Tucker's. The turnplke is about forty rods long and it Is not more tnan ten feet wlde. It is always hard and dry. while on either end with a track 16 to 20 feet wiap there always is more or less mud. In our road-making are apt to bc like old ladj '.- daughter who, beiug told by her motlier to keep out of bad company, iiaving seen the folly of it herself, replied: "Mother, I want to pee the folly of t, too." Let us learn more of i ad-bu!liing by observatif.n. Our observation i. better than its appUcatlon. Wuh a few changes the present system eould be very much impii.ved. Th3 allowing of a day's werk for the use "f -i plow, drag. scaper or a wagon Is ;.ll ■nrong. Net more than haSf at, much .■hould be allowed for these au for a team or a man. Thcre als" s m. good reason why ten houi's' work should not be required on the roa t. The law should also make it discretfonary with the overseer to requlre nwney or work. By this change in the law vVc would get rid of much of the shirking that is now practiced on the road. The townships should buy all the gravel and it should be paid for out of the township treasury. Townships should have the right to buy gravel pits. It should be paid f er by the yai d rather than by the load. A load of gravel when drawn on the raad is a very uneertaln quantity and as now paid for iby the load) coats -,n least ane-third more than it ought to. One of the troubles in our present system is the way our overseers are elected and selected. As now generally conducted, it is a farce - nften they are selected without the first Quallflcation for the position. Remember that the iTnprovement of our roads depends more on the selection of the right men for overseers than on any one ihing. It needs ;i man of intelligence ;n roarimaking, of energy - one who can eilthuse and who is willing to leád off in this direction, and ben you have found such a man - one who will insist on havlng such a day's werk d ne on the road as he would be satisfied with if done fer iiimself- [ say. hen you have found such a man, keep him In for a term of'years. Get over the notion that every man in the district must take hi.s turn as overeeer, for it is of the reates obstarles ín the way of the permanent improvement of our roads. Huw very of '.en do we see a road that has been well graveled all spoiled by covering it all up with clay and the iabor i years thrown away. The wide tire in the opinión of some is the c-ure-all for bad roads. The objection Is Ihat the wide tire makes the roads gooJ for some one else rathér than for him who uses it. We notice that teairtsters all use narrow tiros. simpty becau.se they can draw the snme io.ul easier with a narrow tire than a wide one. I hardlv believe that if the gentleman, who advocated the use of Prench wif?m with wheels ten loches f.irther aparl behind than bef ore. would wa.it to usr. them if he Uved six miles trom town on the average road. These wagons may be all right where they u dump cart for a buggj as they did for .1. J. VVJodmaji, our superintendent at' the Paris exposition, to convey hlm trom the depot to the exposltlon grounds. but 1 venture the assertton that they will not'come ii general use in our day in Michigan. In doing" or.e'. road work it shculd be the aim to have the whole district out at once and especlally is this neeessary when gravellng is to be don Gravel should always be put on a solid road bed and three in :he8 al a time is enough. Where a ! ad is dumped in a piase, il is apt to be a very poor road - the flrst suiumer three inches will pack and become solid whlle six inches will be mrshy all summer. It needs : man at the pit and it needs a man to see th.it it is properly distributed in the track. We farmers are apt to get in a rut in doing cur road work as well as in donig work on the farm Nlne-tentns of the f.irmers set their grain up ni lmnr shocks north and south, when the facts are that it would stand up better .nd dry out beiter if it was set easi and west. (rain so sft ets the morning1 and afternoon sim on the north side- the westerly winds will strike both sides of the shock equally, besides the wind is nol so apt tö blow them down. I make this illustratii n to hou you hmv itnaeiously we stick to ways learned in youth. Roads are Cor the use and benefit of all. They should all uontribüti t" their maintenance anti support. I jlieve ih.it everj person owning a oleycle should pay a highway tax. I belleve that the property of villages and eitles should pay about one-third as much highway tax ;is the eounlry, to be laid out on the main thoroughl&res that lead to these places If you teli mt that you have road ( your own to maintain, 1 answer so you have municipal taxe.mi thia does nol relieve you Trom payihg county and township taxes. To a iírear extent the interests of the rural' and urban population are identical. Nei one-third of the táxable property of this eounty is within the corporate limits of eities and vlllages, Why should they not pay a fair tax towards the maintenance of our roads?