COMMON EOADS OF MICIIIGAiNr. 367 



ill different districts will be found to vary from twenty-fiye to fifty days per mile. 

 Ill the older and richer portions of our State the road work will in mo&t cases be 

 found to vary but little from forty days for each mile of road. This at the usual 

 price of -$1.60 per day v/ould make the road tax amount to SCO per mile. 



The town of Waltham, Mass., has long been noted for its good roads. The 

 sj stem in force tliere is substantially as follows : The town of Waltham employs 

 a road superintendent and engineer, at a salary of 8000 per year, and ten or fif- 

 teen men, one of whom has been thus employed for twenty years. The condi- 

 tion of roads in the town of ^Yaltham and the adjoining town of Newton, is 

 shown by report of committee from the latter town in 1869. 



The town of Newton being under the old system of working out the road 

 tax, we take the following from that report : "' Your committee visited Waltham 

 and found the broken-stone road there dry and hard. It will sustain loads of 

 six tons Avithout being cut into ruts. Keturning, wc observed the instant of 

 passing from town to tovrn in the changed character of the road. Tlie first 

 required scarce any mending, the last was cut up with ruts and full of mud, 

 and workmen were dumping gravel four to six inches deep npon it. On the 

 AValtham road it required not more than twenty pounds to draw the weight of 

 the load, while on the main road of the rich old town of Newton it required one 

 hundred pounds in tractive force." 



The tovrn of AYaltham in 18G5 contained 51 miles of road on which for the 

 past seven years there has been an average expenditure of ^^66 per mile. In 

 18G8 the town expended in repairs and moving of snow $117 jier mile, while the 

 adjacent town of Newton expended on her roads in the same interval $179.30 

 per mile. The reason for all this difference in cost is probably found in the old 

 adage "that a stitch in time saves nine." A few shovelfuls of broken stone 

 or gravel supplied to a rut when first it commences to form will accomplish a 

 better result than as many loads applied six months later. 



The experience of Waltham bears out that of Baden and France, conclusively 

 proving that it is a matter of economy to the treasury to have a system of well 

 built roads which are constantly watched by a few men who mend defects as 

 they appear, instead of allowing the vrear to make the roads almost imjiassable, 

 and then employ a large force to put them in good shape. The objection of 

 introducing such a system into Michigan is that the road tax must be paid in 

 money. This difficulty I think could entirely be obviated by providing that all 

 who wish should be allowed to w^ork a sufficient number of days to liquidate this 

 tax, subject to the direction of the contractor or town superintendent. 



Instead of the system above described, I would like to see a more extensive 

 system, having at its head a State engineer of highways, with as many assist- 

 ants in charge of districts as he may need. In charge of these district engin- 

 eers, and directly responsible to them, I would have the aforementioned town- 

 ship superintendents. 



Such a general system would not only secure for us more uniform roads, but 

 would afford means for economy of construction or repairs, that a single town- 

 ship or county is wholly inadequate to supply. Our railroads furnish the exact 

 number of passengers and the amount and character of the freight transported, 

 together with the cost and profits therefrom. On the other hand, the more 

 important common roads give no report ; we have no exact method of telling 

 the amount of travel over any of our public highways, and all information 

 respecting them is vague and unsatisfactory. Such is the difference between a 

 general system and no system, that despite the high salaries of railroad officials 



