SUBURBAN AND COUNTRY ROADS. 53 



once remedied. " The problem can be put in this way : To have a 

 good road, it is necessar}* that there be no dust or mud on the same, 

 and that there be no ruts ; therefore remove the dust and mud as 

 fast as they are formed, and fill up the ruts as fast as they are made. 

 It may be thought, at the lirst view, that this is too expensive a 

 system. Its principal beauty, however, lies in the fact that it costs 

 less per mile of road kept one 3'ear than the pernicious system of 

 annual or semi-annual repairs, as will be shown and proved. The 

 above two rules — sweep off the mud and dust, as fast as they are 

 formed, and fill up the ruts and bad places with new material as 

 fast as the}' appear — are all that is necessary to be carried out in 

 order that there be cuntinually a good road. Without continual 

 repairs, there can be no such thing as a constantly good road — a 

 proposition that cannot too often be repeated. By repairing a road 

 annually, or twice a year, it matters not which, the result is, strictl}' 

 speaking, a good road at no time during the whole year. The road 

 is wretched just after repairs ; it becomes passable after a while, 

 and deteriorates from that day forward, until it is again made 

 wretched. B}^ the other method, is offered us a road as smooth as 

 a floor, 3'ear in, year out ; and, let it not be forgotten, at a less ex- 

 pense."* 



The following plan is that which experience has taught us as the 

 best adapted for the continuous repair system of broken stone roads : 

 The material for the superstructure of the road-bed, ready pre- 

 pared, is placed at suitable distances along the side of the road. A 

 requisite number of persons are employed to perform the necessary 

 labor. This labor consists in the removal of the dust formed dur- 

 ing the dry season, and of the mud during the wet weather ; in the 

 removal of the covering as fast as it wears away, and in the filling 

 up of ruts and depressions with new material, at the earliest mo- 

 ment. By a constant oversight and attention to these points, any 

 large ruts are prevented, and by a proper and judicious method of 

 applying the material, the road-bed is preserved in its original in- 

 tegrity, f 



Experiments conducted for the purpose, by German and French 

 engineers, conclusively show that resistance to draught is four 

 times as great with deep ruts and thick mud on foundation roads ; 

 and that a dusty or muddy condition of otherwise good roads, adds 



»First Prize Essay, Massachusetts Agricultural Report, 1869-70, p. 233. tibid, 

 pp. 236-238. 



