342 STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



Koads and Road Liavvs. 



A paper read before the Horticultural Institute at Marceline, Mo , Jan. 29, 1895. 



"Roads aud Road Laws" may not seem to be a topic strictly 

 appropriate for the consideration of a meeting of horticulturists, but 

 with us, horticulturists are usually farnierf?, and are interested in the 

 improvement of the means of transportation and communication. I 

 shall waste no time in apologies for calling your attention to this sub- 

 ject, or in presenting arguments and statistics to prove the profit and 

 necessity of good roads. What is needed is not so much to convince 

 the people that good roads are desirable, as it is to show Low they 

 can be bad with the means that we find available. 



The building of macadamized and other expensive roads is a sub" 

 ject that I will leave to those who understand that department better. 

 In time we shall have such roads as other older and richer communi- 

 ties have. At present we are not in a condition to incur the expense 

 of their construction. We have been paying road taxes long enough 

 to have some permanent improvements, but until within a few years- 

 no improvements have been visible. We have introduced and used 

 the grader to much advantage, but the road-roller aud the drain-tile 

 are yet unknown in our country districts, and we continue to do the 

 work at just such times and seasons as suits our convenience, regard- 

 less alike of law aud reason. We plow and grade when our long dry 

 Hummers have made the earth as iron, and we use the team work on 

 extra force required to propel the grader or the plow that onght to be- 

 applied to the roller. And we have not yet learned the principle that, 

 lies at the foundation of all rational road work — that no grading should 

 ever be done except when the earth is moist enough to " pack," and 

 that the use of the heavy road roller is indispensable to make a bed 

 that will not soften into mud as deep as it has been worked when the 

 first rains fall upon it. There have lately been some encouraging sign» 

 that it is beginning to be understood, that a road-way and a water-way 

 are two distinct and incongruous things that cannot be combined to 

 advantage, and that provision must be made for carrying away the sur- 

 face water and keeping it out of the wagon-tracks ; but the use of 

 drain-tile under the road-bed is still unknown and untried. And we 

 still hold to the idea that a road may be worked once a year and left to 

 the action of the water and the wear of vehicles for twelve months 

 without any care or oversight. 



