FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 4l 



what better results can be reasonably expected? Such a law is a dead 

 letter as it applies to the State as a whole. 



Road building and road repairing is a work that requires special knowl- 

 edge of methods and materials, expert ability to handle machinery, and 

 depends not so much upon an increased amount of expenditure, as upon 

 a better use of the large sums already annually provided under our pres- 

 ent system. These problems must be solved in every road district, an- 

 tagonized by the seeming selfish action of local authorities and the lack 

 of interest and co-operation as to any definite policy to be pursued. 



Time will not permit me to go into details, but I want to call your at- 

 tention to one feature of road building in which many costly mistakes 

 are being made. The best road construction will deteriorate from the 

 action of natural elements and the wear of constant travel and no part 

 of a road is as important as the foundation. The lack of drainage 

 is responsible for most of our poor roads and is most destructive 

 to many of our otherwise well-built roadways. Many of our roads 

 are so constructed as to be fitted for use only in dry weather, many 

 of our best gravel roads are but temporary because of the lack of 

 side or underdrainage, a great loss of material and labor because 

 of the lack of a little forethought in preparing the foundation. In 

 a little time the gravel will have disappeared and the original con- 

 ditions exist. Had the foundation been dry, the action of the water 

 and frost would have been prevented and the quality of the road 

 been pi;eserved and permanent throughout the entire year. 



To recapitulate, the time will come when through the efforts of the 

 so-called good roads crank, our citizens will unite in so changing 

 our system of road building that all highway taxes will be paid in 

 cash; when the unit of control will be enlarged from the district to 

 that of the township and county; when many now optional laws will 

 become mandatory, — at least as to some limited amount of permanent 

 construction; when road officers will be selected because of their 

 ability and will receive such remuneration as will secure their best 

 efforts; when the State will undertake to furnish all necessary in- 

 formation as to road building, and such engineering skill as may be 

 required by the various townships and counties, together with plans 

 and specifications suited to individual localities; when the townships 

 counties and State, each contributing its share, will unite in a uniform 

 method of construction, thus securing a permanency of condition and 

 less waste of public moneys, with much more satisfactory results. 

 6 



