December 2, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



489 



terials to the special needs of each ; that he has helped to 

 devise a system for the instruction of road-making engineers 

 in the Scientific School of Harvard University ; and that he 

 has prepared reports to the United States Geological Survey 

 on road-building materials. To these practical qualifica- 

 tions it may be well to add that his mind is trained to 

 habits of close observation; that he has the sound judg- 

 ment which insures safe generalization ; that he takes a 

 comprehensive and common-sense view of the relations of 

 his subject to the social and economic needs and habits of 

 our people, and that he has the faculty of orderly and lucid 

 statement. Of course, his book is graphic and instructive, 

 and we may add that it is especially timely. The desire 

 for an improvement in our highways has grown within a 

 few years until it has assumed the dignity of a popular 

 movement, and it is important that the people should not 

 be carried away by mere enthusiasm to waste their money 

 on experiments. Therefore Professor Shaler's account of 

 what has been done and what can be done in the way of 

 road construction and maintenance cannot but be helpful 

 to every public-spirited citizen who reads it, and especially 

 to every one who has the remotest official connection with 

 our highways. It is not meant to be a treatise for engineers, 

 but it will be found a safe and sufficient guide as to plans, 

 material, repairs and administration for every one except 

 the professional road-builders, who need to be schooled 

 and skilled in the refinements of the art. 



It has come to be admitted by the discerning that good 

 facilities for transportation are necessary to the best intel- 

 lectual development of a people as well as to their physical 

 comfort and financial prosperity. Our people, therefore, 

 need instruction in the history of roads and their relation 

 to human progress. They ought to learn, first of all, that 

 the building of a good road is a task which demands 

 serious thought, and that the design and construction of a 

 highway should never be undertaken except by men who 

 have special and adequate training for the purpose. Again, 

 the people ought to have clear ideas of what it costs to 

 build good roads and what it costs to keep them ; and if, in 

 order to secure the advantages of good highways, they 

 feel that they can afford to expend a certain amount they 

 ought to have some general ideas of the methods which 

 must be adopted if this amount is expended to the best ad- 

 vantage. Since the conditions which determine what is 

 the best road system vary greatly in different parts of the 

 country, it will not answer for any community to copy 

 blindly the methods of another, for such a simple matter 

 as the character of the subsoil or the kind of stone availa- 

 ble for the surface, or some other single feature of the situa- 

 tion, may differ so much in the two cases as to change the 

 whole problem fundamentally. The questions which 

 naturally present themselves to one who takes this view 

 of the case, and many more which grow out of special con- 

 ditions, are discussed by Professor Shaler in a very attrac- 

 tive way. These questions are so comprehensive and 

 touch so many interests that even the unfortunate person 

 who is known as the general reader will find much pleasure 

 and profit in such chapters as those which treat of the rela- 

 tions between roads on the one hand and climate, soil, 

 topography, forests, etc., on the other. 



In almost every chapter, and especially in those which 

 treat of the Distribution of Road Material and Methods 

 of Administration, there is something we should like to 

 quote, but we have only space to call attention to a few 

 points brought out in the chapter on the Relation of Pub- 

 lic Highways to the Ornamentation of a Country, which is 

 more within the special field of this journal. Roads can 

 do very much to modify a landscape in one way or another, 

 and therefore it is fitting that a civilized community should 

 pay some heed to the aesthetic quality of our highways. 

 Professor Shaler holds that roads, as a rule, fit harmoniously 

 with the natural views of the country they traverse in pro- 

 portion as they are laid out and built to best serve the needs 

 of that country. That is, the more graciously they accom- 

 modate themselves to the surface the more likely they are 



to be a pleasing addition to the prospect. The first aesthetic 

 law in the construction of a road is that it should not be 

 obtrusive, and if it is held as nearly as possible to natural 

 grades it will not be so offensively manifest as it will be if 

 carried boldly against obstructions so as to require much 

 excavation and embankment. A second point is that the 

 traveled way should not be unnecessarily wide. A road 

 with a wheelway not more than fifteen feet wide is nothing 

 more than a thread in the landscape from any point of view, 

 while a space of fifty or sixty feet in width, plowed by 

 irregular ruts, will have a much greater tendency to mar 

 the beauty of any scene. Where the shoulders of the road 

 are kept in grass, the slopes sown with grass or planted 

 with some vegetation, beauty as well as utility is served. 

 Roadside trees, if planted so thickly as to make a deep 

 shade, have a tendency to keep a dirt track too wet. If they 

 are strong-growing trees they are apt to extend their roots 

 under the gutters and roadways so as to disrupt the struc- 

 ture, and in the winter season their effect on drifting snow 

 may be bad. It is also true that regular lines of trees give 

 an artificial look which is not always pleasing, although 

 when the trees are individually noble their own beauty 

 may offset this defect. Long lines of evenly grown trees 

 of certain species may also produce some pleasing archi- 

 tectural effect; the arching habit of the American Elm and 

 the columnar growth of the Lombardy Poplar adapt these 

 trees especially for such use. But we agree with Professor 

 Shaler that the highest adornment of a road is accomplished 

 by the systematic planting of trees in groups on either side 

 of a traveled way, the species being varied and the outline 

 of the plantations toward the road broken so as to make 

 pleasing vistas. This work of planting should be entrusted 

 to some one who is familiar with the expression of trees in 

 their adult growth, and when highway borders are properly 

 planted this will prove the most satisfactory of all rural 

 adornments which can be secured for a given amount of 

 outlay. The suggestion of Roadside Parks is so novel that 

 we quote the passage : 



Now that the advantage of public reservations is much con- 

 sidered by our people it appears desirable to organize parks or 

 commons with reference to the main highways. On almost 

 any road having a length of three miles or more it is possible, 

 in New England at least, to select one or more attractive bits 

 of ground which may be devoted to this use. These reserva- 

 tions need not be of great area in order to be effective. It often 

 occurs that a strip ot land next a river or lake which is skirted 

 by the road or a bit of picturesque rocky ground can be ob- 

 tained by gift or at a low money cost because the place has 

 no agricultural value. Although it is desirable that all these 

 dedications to public use be cared for, it is often better that 

 they should be left in the simple wilderness state rather than 

 be made the seats of elaborate ornamentation. A study of the 

 Massachusetts roads indicates that a thousand reservations of 

 the nature here indicated could be obtained by purchase at a 

 fair money value, at a total cost of less than $100,000, the aver- 

 age area being not over five acres. The probable total length 

 of the roads in Massachusetts which are to be taken over by 

 the commonwealth is 2,000 miles. Thus the system proposed, 

 if completely applied, would give bits of park at an average of 

 about two miles. The Trustees of Public Reservations is a 

 body empowered to hold pieces of land in Massachusetts dedi- 

 cated to public use, and this indicates an excellent means 

 whereby land may be held safe from the temptations which 

 would beset municipalities to part with such holdings at the 

 solicitation of persons of local influence. The transfer of road- 

 side park places to similar commissions in other states is to 

 be commended as a measure of safety against such encroach- 

 ments as have served to destroy many of the original commons 

 in Massachusetts and other states, and which in Great Britain 

 have lost to the people more than three-fourths of the land 

 which were public property three centuries ago. 



In the same chapter there is a strong plea for stone arch 

 bridges, not only for enduring quality but for their beauty. 

 Steel bridges, according to the present methods of construc- 

 tion, are necessarily unsightly, and no attempt at decora- 

 tion can make them otherwise. The book is helpfully 

 illustrated, and it has instructive appendices about road legis- 

 lation, experiments on material for road-building, contract 



