1902.] GOOD ROADS. 37 



upon one phase of it. My subject is broad enough to take in 

 the cities. I find that the condition of the pubUc works in 

 many of our large cities is not very far ahead of the farmer 

 in regard to the handhng of road improvement. I want to 

 tell you a few things I have seen in my own city and in other 

 cities of the State, showing that the farmers of the State of 

 Connecticut, with the few men they have to do their work 

 upon the roads, and the poor financial condition of their 

 treasury as a rule, and lacking access always to a scientific 

 knowledge of how to improve their roads to the highest de- 

 gree of perfection, are not in many respects behind the cities. 

 I do not find the country towns are one whit behind any one 

 city in the State of Connecticut, nor are they deserving of any 

 more condemnation or censure for all that they have done 

 than are the cities in the conduct of their work. I have seen 

 in a city men employed by the city, carrying a hoe on their 

 shoulder, start for the supply house, from a mile to a mile 

 and a half distant, at half past four in the afternoon. To say 

 the least, there must have been one hundred men at work in 

 different parts of the city, and it is safe to say that the same 

 practice is carried on by all of them, the city paying at least 

 fifteen cents an hour. Now, multiply that amount of time 

 and the money required to pay for it one hundred times, and 

 extend that into nine months in the year, and you will find 

 that a very large sum was involved, when a toolbox arranged 

 conveniently near the work would have saved that expendi- 

 ture of money. I have seen a cart sent three miles out to 

 the crusher for stones to repair a fracture on city streets and 

 return with two-inch stone, scatter it on the top of the road, 

 and the first team that came along disturbed the stone and 

 the wheel rolled it along a little further. God sent his rain a 

 little later and washed it to the gutter, and the next week, 

 perhaps, the same team was sent along to clean up the stone 

 out of the gutter and cart it off to the dump. By this method 

 of repairs thousands of dollars are annually wasted in our 

 large cities by improper ways of repairing upon our city 

 streets. 



I have seen in a city an asphalt pavement about to be 

 laid, and for half a mile a splendid Macadam pavement 

 plowed up, when it was necessary in the plowing to use a 

 Springfield plow behind a steam roller and a number of men 



