ROADS AND ROADMAKING. 153^ 



provided. Gathering the water is not enough; it should be removed so far from 

 the road as to prevent softening the roadway. In some districts the matter of 

 outlets for ditches is a troublesome one. In such cases call in the aid of a sur- 

 veyor with his level ; he can ijive information in a few hours' work that will 

 enable you to decide upon the best method of disposing of water. Some soils 

 require tile draining to dry them out sufficiently to make a good road surface. 

 The benefits of a good systctn of tile draining are so well known among you that 

 I will not enlarge upon this point, but will simply say that whenever it is of 

 value to the farm it is of still greater utility to the road. 



As eteriuil vigilance is the ])rice of liberty, so is constant attention the price 

 of good roads. It is not enough to fix the roads over once a year, to put them 

 in repair for one week and allow^ them to go to rack and ruin for tifty-one weeks 

 in the year. That is the usual method, but it is wasteful and extravagant in the 

 extreme. Constant travel in one track causes ruts ; water gathers in the ruts, 

 flows to the lowest point and stops there. This lowest point becomes soft, 

 wheels shuck into it and the slight depression becomes a bad hole in a short 

 time. The Avater should not be allowed to accumulate, the rut should not be 

 allowed to form. It is much easier to correct these slight imperfections in the 

 beginning than to wait until they become aggravated obstructions. If every 

 man who hauls a load to town would take a hoe or shovel with him, and follow- 

 ing his team would fill up a few of the deepest ruts as he goes along, a few 

 minutes' labor of each ma^i every day would accomplish an immense amount of 

 work in a season. When the millenium comes I expect to see every teamster 

 ^with his hoe filling up the ruts and drawing off the water from the mud pud- 

 dles, but not before then. It is too much to expect of human nature. I am 

 not going to tramp along fixing up a road for that great lazy neighbor of mine 

 to drive over, who would rather drive his horse and wagon through a mud hole 

 twenty times than get down off his load and draw the water off from the rut. 

 It is not my business to mend the road any more than it is his. But it is the 

 business of every one of us, and there is the trouble. AVhat is everybody's busi- 

 ness is nobody's business. Let it be just one person's business, say the path- 

 master's, to look after these minor repairs ; these little ruts and basins that hold 

 water and cause great chuck holes. Let him go over all the roads in his dis- 

 trict at least once a week, and fix up all the little imperfections before they got 

 to be big ones. In a gravelly region there will be projecting stones to be 

 removed. These cobble stones when taken out of the road should not be thrown 

 away ; they should be gathered in heaps and broken up with small hammers. 

 This broken stone will make an excellent material for filling chuck holes or for 

 raising the road bed in low or soft places. In his weekly trips the pathmaster. 

 should examine all culverts and bridges; oftentimes he will discover the com- 

 mencement of undermining at a culvert which can be stopped by paving with 

 the stone he has dug out at other points on the road, and thus prevent what, if 

 neglected, would become a serious washout. 



If there is no stone or gravel in the district it will be a difficult matter to 

 keep a good road surface. Dirt roads will do in dry weather, but stone or 

 gravel is almost indispensable. If there is no gravel or stone in the town let 

 the authorities buy some. It will be money well expended. I believe that 

 if the subject were placed before the railroad officers in the proper light they 

 would agree to haul gravel and stone for road repairs, if not free of charge, 

 at least for the actual cost. I understand that in some sections of Illinois 

 the railroad companies haul gravel for road repairs free, the town authorities 

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