ROADS AND BRIDGES 287 



make an opening. The road is often made to go around 

 some wet place or to escape a sharp hill. Soon, how- 

 ever, the settlement of the lands and farms results in 

 the road being placed along the straight lines around 

 the " sections," as surveyed a mile square by the na- 

 tional government, or along subdivision lines of the 

 section. Thus it has occurred that the roads of the 

 prairie states follow straight lines, requiring the travel 

 to be around square corners, making longer distances, 

 though on the other hand making the fields of the 

 farmers rectangular and more easily tilled. 



In hilly countries it is especially advantageous to have 

 the county board, in pioneer times, select the routes so 

 as to make the grades fairly easy. And it is often neces- 

 sary, in later years, for the county to straighten the lines 

 at considerable expense. The distance around a hill is 

 often no greater than the distance over it, just as the 

 distance is no greater to follow the bail from one side 

 of a pail to the other, whether it is erect or lies flat on 

 the top of the pail. Ofttimes the heavy grades of a hill can 

 be saved by going little or no further, around or near 

 the foot of the hill. It is not so important in hilly coun- 

 tries to have square fields ; in fact, not so practical, as in 

 a gently undulating or level country. Some attention 

 should be given to the ease of making the pioneer road 

 and it is sometimes advisable to make a temporary loca- 

 tion, but the general plan should provide for its being 

 straightened out, as means can be afforded. The gen- 

 eral plan should be recorded that it may sometime be 

 followed out. The relocation of roads should be done 

 with great care, since the construction of permanent 

 roadways often requires the expenditure of large sums 

 of money. 



In swampy countries the roadway should often be 

 located where the combined advantages of having a road 

 and draining the swamp will best serve the united inter- 



