22nd February, A. D. igoo. 



ESSAY 



BY 



BURTON W. POTTER, Esq. 



Theme: — The Relation of Good Roads to Horticulture and 



Agriculture. 



The time has arrived when it is no longer necessary to argue 

 in favor of good roads or to describe their proper construction, 

 for their value and importance are known to everybody and 

 nearly everybody now knows how they should be constructed. 

 The road problem of today is how to build them within the 

 means of the people and how to manage and how to keep them 

 in repair after they are built. On general principles a ten 

 thousand dollar a mile road is better than a five thousand dollar 

 a mile road just as a ten thousand dollar house is better than a 

 five thousand dollar house; but for practical purposes a live 

 thousand dollar house is just as useful and durable and for the 

 great majority of people more comfortable and convenient than 

 a ten thousand dollar one. Likewise the ordinary country road 

 costing two or three thousand dollars per mile is just as durable 

 and for the great majority of travellers is just as useful as a road 

 costing twice or three times as much. A well drained country 

 road with a substratum of field stone eighteen or twenty inches 

 deep covered with good road gravel is just as good for all prac- 

 tical purposes and in some respects is better than a road with a 

 substratum of stone four or five feet deep covered with crushed 

 granite. The latter road is noisier, more expensive to keep in 

 repair, and harder for horses and wagons. At any rate six 

 hundred miles of the cheaper road is better for the people than 

 two hundred miles of the costlier road. It is of vital importance 



