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sitable section of a road weighs more in the balance 

 than miles of good going, it is logical that the bad sec- 

 tions are the first to call for attention, even if such ge- 

 nerally end by consuming all the funds avaUable for 

 the whole route. 



Obviously where the bad stretch is of considerable 

 length, there is no question of one man undertaking 

 the task. In fact in many cases where the road is bad 

 it is because the route followed by the road is too ap- 

 proximate to the lay of the land; when but a slight de- 

 tour would get round the obstacle, it certainly does not 

 seem common sense to adopt the formula of the Roman 

 road builder, who simply looked on obstacles as so many 

 more reasons for' keeping straight on. 



Fords in places instead of bridges and "terraple- 

 TICS" would in my opinion partially resolve the prob- 

 lem of transitable roads, for our problem is not one of 

 fine roads at all, since our roa'ds in the majority of cases 

 are well enough for the traffic they have to stand, and 

 for the short stretches of bad road there are many 

 long stretches of good going. The strength of a chain 

 is in its weakest link, and the goodness of our roads is 

 in the badness of the worst "pantano". If they cannot 

 be got over or got through, then they should be avoid- 

 ed altogether. 



As a matter of fact this dodging of the worse sec- 

 tions is precisely what does occur, with or without the 

 permission of the neighbouring land owner who often 

 finds his wires cut: generally this has its effect by 

 bringing home to him the need of better protecting his 

 fields; it occasionally ends by his digging a ditch to 

 keep carts and horses out, and thus unwittingly con- 

 tributes with the necessary drainage, often the only 

 thing needed to make the road transitable. 



Whatever way we look at it, the results are poor 

 enough after all these years of "improvement' 7 through 

 ' ' comisiones " and municipalities, for even where they 

 do attain anything practically it surely follows that in 

 the next section the reverse is the case. Probably dis- 

 jointed action is the real reason why we have no roads 

 worth speaking of yet; naturally each person does that 

 part which interests him most, and when he has the 

 most need of it, and on the other hand unless the roads 

 are attended in this way nothing at all can be attained, 

 since, as we see, whenever it is mooted that one central 

 body under takes the whole job, it speedily assumes too 

 gigantic dimensions. 



