APPOINTING A ROAD ENGINEER. 259 



ioned, temporizing manner, or whether the work shall be done thor- 

 oughly. And they are satisfied that the true interests of the town 

 will be best promoted by employing the best attainable engineering 

 skill ; by having the roads over which heavy teams travel macadam- 

 ized with broken stone, and also by having the gravelled roads, as 

 well as the broken stone roads, underdrained in all places where 

 springs manifest themselves, or where higher land adjacent to the 

 road makes it wet and muddy. The test of a road is its condition 

 in bad weather and its power of sustaining heavy teams without be- 

 ing cut up in ruts or pounded full of holes ; and certainly some of 

 the roads in Newton, although in fair condition in dry weather are 

 not able to resist rains nor sustain heavy teams. Should the town 

 purchase a stone-crusher, and decide to repair with broken stone, it 

 will still be no less necessary to underdrain, or, in some suitable way, 

 relieve the road-bed ol water, or the macadamizing will not be effec- 

 tual. A good engineer has the gathered and recorded experience of 

 communities and nations. He knows, or should know, the relative 

 qualities and degree of adaptation of different kinds of rock for the 

 purpose of macadamizing ; he can detect anything in the subsoil 

 which renders it unfit for a road-bed, and suggest a remedy. He 

 can calculate the area of rainfall in a given precinct and determine 

 the amoimt of drainage, and the necessary size of culverts and 

 bridges. He can grade drains, both surface and concealed, at the 

 proper angle, and select the most feasible route for their construc- 

 tion. He would know about different crushing machines, their 

 prices and relative value. His knowledge and suggestions would 

 save the town many times his salary by enabling the town to avoid 

 useless and perhaps costly expense. And it may be hoped that in a 

 conple of years our present superintendent, or some other person, 

 would have thus received such hints and information as would en- 

 able him to manage our roads without the supervision of an engi- 

 neer. 



The town of Waltham macadamizes its principal streets. It keeps 

 ten to fifteen men under constant employ, and much of the time on 

 the roads ; one of these men has thus been engaged for twenty 

 years. Their superintendent of roads has held his situation twelve 

 years; his salaiy as road master is $800; he is also paid $100 as 

 highway surveyor. Waltham, in 1865, had fifty-one miles of road, 

 and for the previous seven years its roads had cost the town an 

 average of $3,357 a year, or about $66 a mile. It cost that town the 

 past year for repairs of roads and clearing off snow $6,000 for sixty 

 miles of road. The town of Newton expended for repairs and clear- 

 ing of snow in the same time on eighty-two miles the sum of $14,523 



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