LEOTUKES AND ESSAYS READ AT FARMERS- 

 INSTITUTES. 



ROAD CONSTRUCTION. 



BY PROP. R. C. CAHPENTElt. 



Read at the Flint Institute, January 30, 1889. 



In the short paper that follows I will make no attempt at a scientific 

 explanation of the principles and processes of road building. On the other 

 hand I will give you a few detached notes of points in road construction 

 that have been of interest to me, and that I deem worthy of your attention. 



In the first place, our country has the reputation of making very poor 

 roads, and the reason for this is to be found in the fact that we, as a public, 

 give little thought or attention to the roads. Our roads might be made the 

 best in the world could the people be made to take pride in them, and to 

 invest money in them. 



Since the invention of the railroad, the common road has ceased to be of 

 as great importance in a commercial sense as before. Our common roads 

 are no longer great trunk lines, bearing the traffic of hundreds of miles of 

 territory; but on the other hand are feeders to the railroad, and seldom of 

 importance to more than ten or twelve miles of area. There is every reason 

 to think that common roads will always be needed ; no one believes that 

 railroads, or even tram-ways can be built in the place of each common road, 

 although it is hard to predict just to what extent railroad building will be 

 carried. 



Let us examine the question a moment to see what we can afford to pay 

 for improved roads. Now, it is probably true that it will not pay to spend 

 a great sum of money in the improvement of our common roads, yet I think 

 we will find that it will pay to improve them to a much greater extent than 

 has been done in the past. I call your attention to the following table which 

 I compiled some years ago, as it shows the comparative value of the different 

 kinds of roads. It also gives the loads, in tons, that form complete loads 

 for ordinary horses. I may say, in this connection, that whereas the day's 

 work for an ordinary horse, taken year in and out, is only equivalent to a 

 steady pull of 100 pounds for ten hours, at a speed of two and one-half miles 

 per hour, yet it is probably true that many of you have horses capable of 

 doing somewhat more work. The cost of transportation is calculated on the 

 assumption that wages of man with team and wagon are $2.50 per day; 

 which furnishes a means of comparison of the different roads, but except in 

 a few cases it will not give the exact cost of transportation : 



