432 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



sible. Side gutters should be made sufficieot to carry the water 

 away at all times, a«d every water-course should be taken advantage 

 of as an outlet, so as to dispose of that water in as small quantites 

 as possible and in the quickest possible time. 



The next matter is to place culverts. This is a most important 

 matter, and was referred to by Professor Holmes as being one of the 

 important questions that should be considered. If you were to solve 

 that problem alone to-day, you would have done for the people a 

 very great service, because in some of our municipalities we have 

 roads the cost of maintaining which has been most materially re- 

 duced by simply changing the old system of building and maintain- 

 ing timber culverts and using somethiug of a more substantial 

 nature. There are hundred of thousands of these small sluices in 

 every municipality that must be maintained in order to carry the 

 water in the natural water-courses, and every experienced munici- 

 pal oflficial knows very well that this is one of the greatest items of 

 expenditure, and when we hear that so many thousand dollars each 

 year are devoted to the keeping up of roads, it might be learned that 

 nearly 75 per cent, of the expenditure consists of the cost of main- 

 taining these perishable culverts. In the early history of the coun- 

 try, when timber was plentiful, all we had to do was to cut down a 

 tree and make a cheap culvert, but now that material is much more 

 scarce in most districts. We buy lumber at |12, $16 or |18 a thou- 

 sand to use for repairs on culverts. It is then subjected to the most 

 severe test that timber can be given; it is placed underground, ex- 

 posed to frequent changes of wet and dry, and its life is only about 

 five years. This item runs into a very large amount of money each 

 year. Seventeen years ago we abandoned that system and under- 

 took the building of concrete pipes for renewing these culverts. 

 Our people at first regarded that as a copy of the plans of the ancient 

 Romans in road building, and as altogether too expensive for this 

 new country. But it seems that a simple construction of molds can 

 be produced for about §5, and the material can be made with a sim- 

 ple mixture of cement and gravel by the use of unskilled labor, and 

 the whole matter can be most economically carried out. When those 

 culverts are once made and properly laid, they are practically in- 

 destructible. As I sa}"", we began this seventeen years ago. and 

 since then have renewed every sluice in the municipality, and to-day 

 we are not expending one solitary cent oo the maintenance of cul- 

 verts. These pipes may be used up to 3 feet in diameter, and if you 

 require greater capacity you can lay two pipes side by side, leaving 

 a sj^ace of about a foot of earth between them; and where a greater 

 capacity of water way is required we simply put in a concrete arch. 

 This is a siuiple construction. Templets are made just as a mason 

 makes a templet in a window, and about four are placed in a culvert; 



