Improvement Of Highways

SOME STRIKING FACTS FROM THE riiOVIDENCE WAREHODSE CO.'S WORKINO EXrERIENCE. Mr. James Foster, Jr., of the Providence Warehouse Co., autlienticates the following instances of the losses occuring froin the -maller loada that poor roads compel In the carting of mereliandise done by that concern. The Warehouse Co. lias got the following figures down to a practical basis from experience and they express the actual rulen whioh control tbeir load-carrying: A two horst team ttsually carts the following number balea of eotton, entimate each at 500 pounds : From India Point to the Providence Warehouse, corner Cove and Mason f treets, over (jood roads, an average load of IS bales. To S. R. "Wlieciloii'a mili In fioituate, vla Plainlield streef, a direotion where tlie higliways are nol o good, G bales To Phenics, wten the road is at its best, 8 bales. It is fair to attribute some of the difference to the longer distance and some to surmouuting bilis, ttlthough many hill roads can be somewhat leveled, but with a generous margin for these two thingg, the facts aguin demónstrate the tlieory that a horse can do twice as much work on a pond road 3 on a poor one, and is accordingly worth twice as much to its owner when the right condilion of ways prevails. PRESIDENT PKCKHAM OF THE R. I. SO:IKTY ON GOOD AND BAD ROAUS. Cliairman Howen of the roads improvenient committee lias received tlie followine letter from Char'es II. Peckham, Esq, President of the Ehode Mand Domentic Industry Society, (largest in the State) on t!ie value and utillly ofgood roada. Providence, IÍ. I., Jan. 24. William M. P. Bowen. Ksq., Chairman, etc, Providence, R. I.: Dear Sir - As to the matter of "highway mprovements I think it is of the greatest importance to tice prosperily of our agricultural communities thal some ,change shouid be made in their care. At present in some paris of our state tliere is a gradual shrinkage in the milue of ourfarming property, owing, in my opinión, to the want ofbetter highway communication. In my own town, Scituat we have about 72 miles of highway, divided luto aboutÜO roud districts, and in gome of these districts I fear the road taxes have been expended on the " working out or standing out plan.1' Last spring at oor annual town meeting it was decided to make a cUange by appointing Road Commissioners, the number not to exceed three. Tliis change takes efïect this coming spring, and I hope Unit suitable road machinery may be supplied tliem, so that our road taxes may be used to better advantage. As to tlie present condition of the roads in our State there can be but one opinión, they need to be improved: as to hout it should be done I have no pttins, it might be tcell for tlie Legidalure to appoint a committee to take the matter into consideralion, and recommend some luw, thaljhould be applicable throughout theJState. Very truly yotir-s ClIAKLES H. PeCKHAM. TIIR SKCnKTAUY OF STATE ENDORSES TUEMOVEMENT. Secretary of State's Office, ) State of Rhode Island. Providencb, Jan. 19, 1800. Wm. M. P. Bowen, Esa : My Dear Sir - Am wlth you heart and hand in yourefforte forgood roads. Anything you can suggest tot me to do will be gladly oonsidered and done, lf possible. Verytruly yourí, D. XI. lUOSS. INTKI,LIGKHT TLAN AND TUHPOSE KEOKS8A.RY; HOW IT IS DONJS IN CANADA. It woulü be impoggible for any town to bear the expense of macadamizlng all its main roads at once. The cost would eat up the entire property of the town. öuch a propositloi is manifestly absurd on its face. But the cost of macadttmizIng a short portion of the main roída of a town eacli year, in pursuance of a complete plan which should spread the work over 50 year., would not be great. It would not be so great each year, as the cost of maintutning the extra teams which bad roads compel farmers and teamsters to maintain. In many parts of Canada they have as good roads as Europe - roads which are a daily blessing to every traveler, and which invuriably draw from tbe yisitor of New Eiijrland habitant tlie wonder how 80 poor and sparbely settled a country as Canada can have so tnuth better roads than thickly settled, rich New England. The answer is simple: the Canadian road makers began with an intelligent plan and purpose. For years they have been macadamizlng as miicli road as their means would allow. Every season great piles of stone are broken and heapéd up along the roadside. When a hole opes ltself, enough of these;broken atones are taken from tlio nearcst pile to mend the defpct while it is sliglit. When the road-making season comea on, wliat is left of the broken stonc is used to extemi the macadam. Every year the area of good roads extends, and every year the ood roads grow better. If, 50 years aso, the business of roadniaking in this little state, had been undertaken witli a similar purpose and pursued with similar economy and skill, there would not to-day be a single niile of bad, or even poor, road In Connecticut. If a similar plan should be adopted this year, another huif century would see the same result, without any appraclable yearly increase in the cost of road imklng, and with a cunstantly decrea9ng exprmliture for hor-e flesh and wagons. - Norwich, Coon., Bulletin. KMPLOY CONVICT LABOR; 8TATE SUPERVISIÓN ADVISABLE IN SOME CASKS. It would pay everywhere to construct the best inaoidamized ro:ul-, and the work should be undertaken by tlie state where long thorouhfares are rtquired. We have ofteu supgested that it need cost very little if the convicts and crimináis who cannot be given thelr liberty because of their unrestrained ileprnvity were employed at the task. This would effect a duuble object. It would bui ld splemlid roads at small co.-t throughout the lcngth and breadth of the land, and it would tend to restrain crime. It is little hardship to the burglar or the highwuyman to keep liim in prison, where he is well fed and clothed, and better cared for on the whole than the average of honest liiborers who support themselves. If he was set to breaking stonc and road-building in a chain gang, and made to eat hls bread in the sweat of his face, uuder u burniiiL July sun, or in the chili of winter, he would not think that conviction of crime was snch a light matter. - New York Journal of Commerce. MAN, NOT THE I.OKD BESPOXSIBLE FOR MUD. At a prayer meeting held in the First Methodist church In Portland, Ore. last week, a lady expressed her inability to aee why certain thing3 weie tlius and so, and was eapocially severe upon Provldence for inrtictinjf 80 much mud upon mankind. Said stie, "No matter liow much I may clean, my house is continually tracked witli mud; my porches are kept in a fllthy condition, and il's nothing but mud, mud, mud." When the speaker tinishcd, the pastor arose and remarked: "I cannot conclude thia meeting without saying that üod is not responsible for the mud ; in fact, if there were no men there woulil be no mud. Moreover, in Portland, Ore, where it rains about six mouths in the year, there ia no mud, for the simple leason that they have men there who know enougli to make roads. - Exchange.