SO^ JBOARD OF AGEICULTUKE. 



Of the great roads of France, Germany and other European countries, 

 time will not suffice to speak except to say that the great highway built 

 from GeneA'a to Milan by Napoleon, who was great in conceiving public 

 works and superintending their construction as in commanding armies, 

 is yet a marvel of engineering skill. It crosses the Alps by the great 

 Simplon pass and stretches, white, smooth and firm, over its many miles, 

 with no ruts to shake the traveler from his nap and no dust to cover his 

 person. The lines along which it was projected were extremely difficult, 

 and therefore the cost was ^15,UUU per mile, no dollar of which, it is safe 

 to say, was misapplied, so well did that master-builder know how to 

 handle men and materials. 



It is maintanied by traiiied menders of roads duly equipped with the 

 necessary implements of their craft; these are assigned certain sections, 

 which they are required to keep in perfect order and even dust-free. The 

 material used is broken stone of the dimensions of two and one-half 

 inches, well tamped in. It is claimed that this kind of maintenance is 

 not practicable in this country because of the great difference in wages, 

 1-ut no comparison is made between the primitive tools used by the one 

 and the facilities that might be commanded, through the use of which 

 the sections might be greatly lengthened. 



That the roads of Europe are so much better than ours, and that there 

 are so many more miles of them is a standing reproach to us, for which 

 the greater age of those countries does not offer complete vindication. 

 Our pre-eminence in the quantity and (luality of road-making machinery 

 and accessories that might be brought to bear would soon wipe out our 

 reproach were it not for our miserable system that starts out with no 

 definite standard of construction and maintenance; with men in charge 

 who have no technical knowledge of the work in hand, whose aim it is 

 to keep the roads up to the former standard, at a cost which will not 

 cause taxpayers to protest. The time of mending of roads is a time of 

 general criticising and free profanity; sand, gravel and small boulders, 

 which never pack, are dumped in an irregular ridge in the middle of the 

 road, dirt and sod are scraped to it, and the whole is left for time and 

 chance to smooth out. Culverts are put in without any calculation of 

 the territory drained and the volume of water that must pass through; 

 bridges are bviilt Avith a like ignorance of possibilities, etc. 



Who does not know that all this is mere temporizing, the purpose 

 being limited to handing the work over to one's successor in office at 

 least no worse than it was received? Who docs not know that no pci'ma- 

 nent improvement can result from such work, and therefore that the 

 large sums so expended are, to a very considerable degree, wasted? 



In the county of Montgomery, during the year ]!)::3, the township 

 expended for road i-epair $33,002.09, the county $40,0(in, n total of !P73.- 

 0(;2.99. The road mileage is something over 550 miles; ligure out from 

 this Avhat the 11,905 miles of county roads in the State cost annually, then 



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