COUNTRY ROADS. * £39 



which is too often onlj^ a blind manifestation of narrow thought 

 and narrower selfishness. 



Work that Can be Done Noio. 



But cannot our roads be greatly improved while working under 

 present conditions ? Yes. Some districts now do much moi'e 

 commendable work than others. There is no reason, except lack of 

 inclination — but that is a giant in the path — why all should not 

 equal those who now do best, nor any suflScient reason why those 

 who now do best should not do better still. Drainage can be 

 easily made more efficient; excessive "crowning" can be discon- 

 tinued ; less of vegetable mold and sand and mud, and more of 

 gravel, can be used ; there can be more diligent removal from the 

 road of pestiferous stones, both loose and embedded ; more cutting 

 away of trees and bushes that shade wet places and retard evapo- 

 ration ; there can be less building of useless fences along tlie 

 roads for the increase of snow drifts ; more cutting down of hills, 

 going around them, or following a zigzag course over them ; there 

 can be more of continuous work upon roads, and they can be more 

 intelligently laid out by County Commissioners and town officials. 

 Even under the present policy we might secure, though at undue 

 cost, 3'et not greater than now, quite decent gravel roads, of fair 

 grade and fair drainage. These things might be, but will they 

 ever be, when, under the present system, so many must be in- 

 structed before the work can be properly done ? 



As an example of what can be done now, let me refer to a 

 district in the town of Durham, whose three miles of road I have 

 recently had occasion to contrast with roads elsewhere. They are 

 certainly the best three consecutive miles of rural road in my 

 county, and I think the best I have seen in the State. They are, 

 I know, much better than they were twenty years ago ; and they 

 have been made better without an increase of expenditure. A few 

 details may not be without value. The land is far from level, 

 there being frequent hard, gravel hills, witli intervening stretches 

 of clay and bog. Upon inquiry I was told that next to nothing 

 had been scraped into the road from its sides during the last ten 

 years, though previously the scraper was in constant use, and the 

 road was excessively crowned with whatever could be most con- 

 veniently got. Scraping and crowning, which never or seldom 

 give good results, have indeed been almost wholly ignored the 

 last ten years. Instead, the hills, tough as they are with "pin 



