SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 595 



square widened or graded but what has been done by the couaty, and 

 we have a very good man for supervisor, too. Every culvert, bridge, 

 hill and stretch of level is each a problem in itself. There is prob- 

 ably not a mile, possibly not one-half mile of road in this or any other 

 county that requires the same treatment the whole length. If there 

 was money enough in it to employ the one man all his time, we might 

 have better roads. 



If all the farmers would use the drag and use it at the right time, 

 it would be a great help, but there are many who will not use it at 

 all. Often the time for using the drag lasts but a day, sometimes scarcely 

 half a day, when the weather is very warm. At such a time a township 

 supervisor can drag but a small part of the fifty or more miles of road, 

 and he can not see to having it done near as well as the party who has 

 but a few miles to attend to. A supervisor or "caretaker" of five or 

 six miles could, usually, if he was paid for it, as he should be, drag the 

 whole himself when the ground is in proper condition. 



Why can't we have some uniformity about the width and curvature of 

 the roadbed? I drove over some dirt road in coming here that is only 

 wide enough for one track with deep ditches on each side. Teams meet- 

 ing in such a place, one would have to back out. Traflic in such small 

 space, when there is mud, cuts it up far more than where there is plenty of 

 room. In a stretch of two or three miles of macadamized road, there is 

 part where the eight or ten feet wide of rock and gravel is set up on a 

 "razor back" with sides so steep that it is unsafe for vehicles to turn off. 

 This condition is very unnecessary. In other parts, the macadam is very 

 little higher than the ground on either side, with plenty of room on each 

 side for teams to pass. 



There has been a great deal said and written about making the roads 

 good for the mail carrier, and it is all right, but he don't care whether 

 the hills are steep, or the track is narrow, so it is smooth and hard. 

 His trips are all made in daylight. Why don't we think of the doctor? 

 You call him in the night and want him to get to you just as quick as 

 possible, and in doing so, he often must pass teams on his route. For 

 his safety, the road-bed should be just as wide as possible. 



Assistant Director, Public Road Inquiries, Maurice O. Eldridge, in 

 Farmers' Bulletin No. 136, entitled "Earth Roads," insists that the grades 

 should be "such that loaded vehicles may be drawn over them without 

 great loss of energy," and says that "accurate tests have shown that a 

 horse which can pull on a level road one thousand pounds, on a rise of 

 one foot in one hundred feet can draw only nine hundred pounds, one 

 foot in ten feet can draw only two hundred and fifty. Per cent of the 

 grade means so many feet up in one foot horizontal. Ten per cent grade 

 means a rise of ten feet of horizontal distance traveled." The same 

 authority says the "fail from the center to the sides should under no 

 circumstances exceed one in twelve." In Vermont, the system has 

 been introduced of dividing the roads into certain length and alloting each 

 length to a section man, care-taker or farmer and it is a matter worthy 

 of note, that in Vermont the general results from its application are 

 that much better roads are secured at less expense. 



