264 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



SECOND PEIZE ESSAY 



CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR OF ROADS. 



By Samuel F. Miller, C. E., 



PROF. OP MATHEMATICS AND FARM ENGINEERING, MASS. AGR. COLLEGE. 



A " treatise on the science of road making, and the best 

 methods of superintending the construction and repair of pub- 

 lic roads in this Commonwealth," being called for by a Resolve 

 of the last legislature, I submit these few suggestions, not as 

 exhaustive of the subject, — for my time will not allow me to at- 

 tempt such an essay as seems to have been anticipated by the 

 Act of the legislature, — ^but as the results chiefly of my own 

 observation and experience. 



The first roads of a country usually follow the high lands 

 and ridges, when the intervening valleys are narrow, or the land 

 is wet or heavily timbered, — and military roads are not an ex- 

 ception, — for the obvious reasons of greater security, less water 

 to contend with, and being more easily built. Besides, roads 

 built by citizens are at first only improved foot or bridle-paths 

 leading from house to house ; and the earlier settlers live upon 

 the hills for good sanitary reasons. Hence, the problem of 

 changing the location of the old highways is sure to come. 



An Indian trail is a better route to follow for a road than a 

 white man's path, for those great travellers, the Indians, learn 

 intuitively to economize their strength. But our farmers are 

 slow to learn that it would pay them back fourfold to make bet- 

 ter roads, for many of them might thus be cut off from the 

 travelled way, and they are not in the habit of figuring closely 

 on the value of time, the cost of " wear and tear," animal 



