THE CANADIAN HOR TIC UL TVRIST 



In the words of Mr. A. W. Campbell, 

 Provincial Instructor Roadmaking, we 

 ask : 



Do we actually want good roads ? Or are 

 bad roads preferable ? Is the cry that has 

 been raised throughout the length and breadth 

 of Canada and of this continent : " We want 

 good roads," the demand of men in their 

 sober senses ? Or has labor and money been 

 placed on our roads for a century past merely 

 to fill in time, and keep our surplus capital in 

 circulation. If we do not want gocd roads, 

 if bad roads are preferable, why should we 

 want roads at all ? 



mud, is plowed under within a year and 

 wasted. A good road is an economical road. 

 In building an economical road, improve- 

 ments must be made in such a way that they 

 will last. Roads in Ontario have been built 

 on the san e principal as is a wagon which 

 breaks down under the first load, and is used 

 for firewood after a year of service. Most 

 of the leading roads of Ontario have been 

 made and remade a score of times and are still 

 bad roads. They are of the kind that "break 

 up." A road that "breaks up," like any- 

 thing else that breaks up, is a poor invest- 

 ment. When road building is rightly under- 

 stood in this country, township councillors 

 will no more think of building roads that will 



Fig. 1393 —.\ Country Road as it Should not bk. 



We must have roads. That necessity hav- 

 ing been placed upon us, the experience which 

 has taught us the wisdom of building other 

 structures substantially, teaches us the econ- 

 omy of having roads that are good. We want 

 roads which will withstand wear. We want 

 the labor and money spent on them to be a 

 paying investment. We want roads which 

 will be good no matter what the state of the 

 weather. We want roads which will not be- 

 come rutted immediately the fall rains come 

 on or when the frost leaves the ground in the 

 spring, remaining in rough ridges for a con- 

 siderable part of the summer. A road which 

 does this is a bad road. The money and labor 

 spent on it is largely forced down into the 



break up in the spring than they will think 

 of constructing houses that break up in the 

 spring, barns that break up in the spring, or 

 fences that break up in the spring 



The road builders of this country have not 

 given sufficient consideration to the efiFect of 

 building bad roads. Year after year work of 

 a flimsy, shiftless character is placed on the 

 roads. The results are only temporary and 

 are destroyed by a very little wear and traf- 

 fic. In a very short time the work has to be 

 done over again. But the evil does not end 

 with this. This annual demand for repairs is 

 so great that no township can respond to it. 

 The roads instead of being repaired when 



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