264 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



The correct placing of shade-trees and the selection of the 

 species used are matters of importance. Trees must not be placed 

 so near the driveway as to be dangerous. The same is true of 

 telegraph-poles, sign-posts, etc. 



The military features of our roads have been all but entirely 

 overlooked. A few years ago a request for the vie'ws and advice 

 of the War Department met with a polite but entirely unenlight- 

 ening answer. Strategically, roads must connect points of mili- 

 tary importance. Tactically, they must be designed to carry 

 necessary military traffic. In the light of the experience of the 

 great war, this means that very heavy loads, guns of six and eight 

 inch caliber, heavy motor-trucks, high-speed cars, cavalry and 

 infantry must be accommodated. Less than three lines of traffic 

 will hardly meet the requirements. Nothing less than thirty feet 

 of graded width will do. Bridges must also be strengthened. It 

 may well be that screening will be required. 



The designer must also carefully weigh the advantages of any 

 proposed feature of design against its cost. He must bear in 

 mind that the total road cost is divided into three parts : interest 

 on the first cost; depreciation and up-keep, including the over- 

 head charges due to administration, use of machinery, and, what 

 is usually called the repair charge, the cost of the actual labor 

 and materials used in repair. What he now has in most cases 

 is the repair charge only and that without traffic data. This 

 charge may be easily kept low by an expensive construction. It 

 may well be that a low-priced road with comparatively high re- 

 pair charge will be the cheapest solution. Yet, on the other 

 hand, too cheap a construction is sure to prove wasteful. It can 

 easily be imagined that the designer has ample field in which to 

 show his ability. 



We have generally built good roads as far as construction work 

 is concerned. We have probably -been a little too impatient for 

 results and too easy-going to obtain all the accuracy in following 

 a specification that we find abroad. Our inspection, too, in many 

 cases, may have lacked in intelligence and thoroughness, but on 

 the whole we have not done badly in this respect. 



The up-keep of our roads has, on the whole, been disappointing. 

 There are, of course, brilliant exceptions. If we are to have good 

 roads we must provide a system that will make good minute 



