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MAKING GOOD HOADS.
ESSENTIALS TO BE CONSIDERED IN
BUILDING HIGHWAYS.
MefctioclH Suiti and to tle Various Soils—JVfac
adam and Telford Foundation Systems.
Size and Form of Stone —Thickness of the
Metal ling and How It Should He Raid.
At the beginning of the present cen
tury the highways of England wore so
bad and the rates for toll so heavy that
public attention was attracted to the sit
uation. The investigations which fol
lowed led to tho formulation of rules
for tho construction of roads which have
resulted in the splendid highways for
which Great Britain has become fa
mous. Macadam and Telford were the
most prominent road engineers of that
time, and the two different systems of
roadbnilding which they advocated are
still used, according to the requirements
of the locality where roads are to he
built.
In the United States most roads have
natural beds, and the character of these
beds is determined by the geology of the
region in which they lie.- Hence the
roadbeds consist of clay, sand, loam,
gravol, etc., or may occasionally be on
the surface of the country rock. From
this necessary relation between soil and
road it usually happens that the poorest
roads are in tho regions of poor farms,
where property values and consequently
taxes are low and there is little money
to spend on the roads. This is especially
true in stony districts, for a stony soil
is tho most unmanageable material for
a road.
Of the natural roads those on clay soil
are best in dry weather, thoso on sand
best in wet weather. When wet with a
certain proportion of water lino sand
becomes hard and clastic, as we see on
the beachos of our Atlantic coast from
Lond Island southward.
Of the natural soils, the best for road
purposes are those variable mixtures of
sand and clay called loams. Loam roads
average better through tho year than
thoso of clay or sand. A limestone gravel
also makes a good road, as does a fine
quartz gravel mixed with clay. From
everyday experience it is clear that nat
ural roadbeds are not lit for heavy traf
fic when under varying conditions of
moisture.
The experience of over 2,000 years
has shown conclusively that there are
DNDKAINUD DIRT ROADWAY.
[From Good Roads.]
two essential points to be aimed at in
the construction of a road:
First, a hard, smooth, waterproof sur
face.
Second, a thoroughly dry foundation.
These principles wore known to tho
Romans 800 B. O. and used in the con
struction of their best highways.
The surface of a good road must be of
sufficient strength to resist tho wear and
tear of traffic and smooth enough to pre
vent undue strain and wear on vehicles.
In connection with this the soil beneath
must be made dry and kept dry. There
fore the subject of road drainage is as
important as that of road metaling.
The best, road covering is composed of
angular fragments of some stone grind
ing on the surface into a dust which,
when wet, will bind or in a measure
cement the fragments together, so that
water will not penetrate. Tho angular
form is essential to make tho fragments
interlock. The sizes should be quite uni
form, except that the surface layer may
consist of fragments different in size
from those in the bottom course.
The total thickness of this metaling
must be at least 0 inches on a natural
soil foundation. The fragments should
not. exceed 2*4 inches in diameter and
should be rolled in two separate courses
with a heavy steam roller until the sur
face is absolutely firm. This is the mac
adam system.
Where the soil foundation is clay or
for any reason difficult to drain the tol
ford method is used. In this case a
course of flat stones about six inches
deep, set on edge and closely wedged
together, is placed upon the soil, and the
crushed stone is placed over this four
inches thick and rolled solid, lu good
practice it is customary to roll the earth
before the stone is laid upon it and then
roll the stouo foundation. The telford
foundation forms a bridge which pre
vents the toad from sinking in moist
soil.
In some places tile drains, one on each
side of the road, are necessary. After
the road is built it must be kept con
stantly in repair, and the neglect of this
principle is to a great extent responsible
for the poor roads of the United States.
The macadam and telford systems above
described are necessary for roads design
ed for heavy traffic in all weathers, but
roads for pleasure driving only do not
need the same expensive preparation.
Would Benefit Farmers.
It is said that the farmers of Missouri
would benefit by the employment of
convicts on road improvements to tho
amount off 12,000,000 annually.
Good Roads Note*.
Good roads are cheapest in the long
run, also in the short run.
Ask for good roads, insist on getting
them.
A road should he fixed a little while
before it needs it rather than a long
while after.
If you don't see the good roads yon
want in your vicinity, ask for them.
Good roads indicate corporate intelli
gence.
GOOD ROADS ECONOMY.
t'ObtH More to Maintain Mud Roads Than
Wall Built Highways.
Governor Mount of Indiana enunci
ated some wholesome truths on the road
question in his inaugural address. He
said in part:
Good roads are essential to onr high
est development socially, intellectually
and financially. Many counties in our
state, actuated by a commendable spirit
of progress, are rapidly improving the
highways. In the near future some of
our counties will have a complete sys
tem of free gravel roads. The main
thoroughfares in these counties, having
been graveled and received by the county
commissioners, are kept in repair at the
county’s expense. The supervisor, being
thus relieved from care of the main
thoroughfares, is enabled to concentrate
the labor and tax at his disposal upon
the lateral roads; hence all will soon be
improved.
The economy in road improvement
will soon be demonstrated by tho fact
that the counties having the best roads
will maintain them at less cost than the
mud roads, with all their inconven
iences, are maintained in their wretched
condition. Tho work required by law of
ablebodied men, together with the road
tax, gives to the road supervisors of our
state tho expenditure, in money and la
bor, of a vast sum. Much of this is
wasted by reason of incompetent man
agement. The railroad tax for highway
improvement in some road districts of
our state is so manipulated by the road
supervisor that the money inures more,
to his benefit than the improvement of
the thoroughfares. In some instances in
our state a brokerage business is carried
on, and money is made out of trafficking
in this road tax.
While some of our road laws need re
forming, the manner of their execution
needs revolution. When competence is
made the tost in selecting supervisors
and taxpayers see that they discharge
their duties, wo will find some improve
ment in our highways without addi
tional tax.
CONVICT LABOR ON ROADS.
Would Not Compete With Free Labor if
Worked on the Highways.
The only way prisoners can be em
ployed without competing directly with
free labor is to put them to work on
public improvements that could not be
constructed for years to come hut for the
utilization upon them of labor of this
sort, says tho Chicago Record. In this
way there may he secured improvements
of inestimable value for all time that
the public might not have felt warrant
ed in constructing under other circum
stances. There is no doubt that good
roads would be worth almost any amount
to a community, but it is practically
impossible to get taxing bodies to take
from tho people tho sums necessary for
their construction.
Making of good roads would be in
many respects ideal employment for a
portion of the state’s convicts, and the
proposition so to employ them has been
revived in New York. The chief objec
tion to tho plan, peculiarly enough, is
a sentimental one. It is argued that tho
popular- sense would revolt at the sight
of convicts under guard at work in the
presence of the public. This objection
has same weight, but it should not be
made to appear insuperable.
THE OUTLOOK BRIGHT.
Tlie Year 1897 Promise* to lt<> Notable In
Highway Improvement.
It becomes more and more apparent
that what was formerly a public request
for good roads is now becoming a public
demand, says Tho L. A. W. Bulletin.
Where the people were once satisfied to
make a suggestion they are now dis
posed to dictate. What is good for ev
erybody nobody should oppose.
It is now pretty well understood that
good roads are the most economical in
vestment. a people can put tlieir money
in. How to improve the public high
ways is now tho topic ef discussion.
There is no longer any question that
they should he improved.
The already overt axed farmers are be
ginning to look upon the securing of
good roads as a local means of increas
ing their welfare rather than as some
thing to add to their present heavy bur
den of debt. There is a getting together
of all the forces interested in the sub
ject that warrants the prediction that
1897 is to he a notable year in highway
improvement. The lawmakers and the
roadmakers are being encouraged by all
classes and ages to do something of a
practical nature.
COUNTRY ROADS.
Tin- Vast Majeritlty of Them Are Simply
Stretches of Dirt.
For 100 years or more newspapers,
philosophers and political economists
have vainly tried to convince the tillers
of soil that they, more than any other
class of people, were directly, vitally
and pecuniarily interested in making
and maintaining country highways over
which heavy loads and light ones could
ho drawn without the expenditure of an
unnecessary amount of costly strength.
The farmers studied tax rates and
either would not hear or would not heed
any statistics whose bearing was less
immediate, though not less obvious. The
vast majority of rural roads continued
to be stretches of dirt, made into dust
by the sum into mud by the rain and
always enforcing the truth that the dis
tance between a farm and a market de
pends more on the nature of the road
connecting them than on the number
of miles separating them.—Wheeling
Register.
Hnnu*<l Clay.
A writer in the Davenport (la.) Lead
er advocates burned clay as a road ma
terial. He says that he has seen a rail
road track “ballasted” with the clay
simply put on like ashes, and the sur
face was so hard that it was impossible
to force one's heel into it. It seems, he
adds, a simple solution of the road ma
terial problem, good and cheap.
THE TIMES: BRUNSWICK, UA,, MARCH 14, 1897.
lIOAD SUGGESTIONS.
INFORMATION AS TO BUILDING AND
REPAIRING.
Valuable Hint* on the Construction ana
Repair of Highway*-*—Size and Quality
of Stone —The Best, Foundation Use of
the Roller and Its Weight.
The annual report of Henry I. Budd,
commissioner of public roads in New
Jersey, is a document of general impor
tance, inasmuch as New Jersey is con
ceded to bo the model state in road
building.
One of the most interesting and valu
able chapters in the report is that of
“Instructions to freeholders, engineers,
supervisors and others interested in
building and repairing roads,” made
necessary by the frequent change in
these officials. Some of the suggestions
are:
"The hardest and toughest stone or
rock procurable at a reasonable cost
should bo selected.
“All stone should be as near cubical
as possible, and none should be over 1 %
inches euch way in diameter.
"The earthen base should bo thor
oughly drained, the water taken out and
kept out, then rolled until the roller
ceases to make any impression on it and
made to conform to the same curvatures
A NEW JERSEY ROAD.
[From Good Roads.]
as the finished roadbed. There is no
better base than dry, firm earth, not
even a telford foundation. The metal
should be spread at a uniform depth
over the whole surface, then partially
consolidated by rolling, then thoroughly
watered before the roller, which wetting
causes the pieces to glide more readily
together and to be more firmly bonded
without crushing. Any depressions
caused by rolling to be remedied by
picking up with a pick and adding suffi
cient stone to bring the surface up to
the proper level. For this purpose on
macadam and telford roads a steam
roller of 10 or 12 tons weight is best
suited and most economical.
"For gravel or earth roads a horse
roller of from six to ten tons is sufficient.
If tho metal is well rolled and compact
ed, tho bed will be impervious to water,
and the earth below will then he so dry
it will not freeze, uplift and disinte
grate the bed. Dry stone, gravel or earth
does not readily compact. Therefore in
the spring, after the frost is well out
and the ground is moist, the whole sur
face should be rolled with a heavy roller.
Thore is nothing which gives better re
turns for tho money invested than free
application of the roller to the surface.
"During the dry season the roads
should he frequently watered or covered
with a slight coat of loamy gravel.
"In short, a perfectly good road must
have a firm and unyielding foundation,
good drainage, a hard and compact sur
face free from all ruts, hollows or de
pressions, tho surface neither too flat to
allow water to stand nor too convex to
be inconvenient to the traffic, and free
from loose stones. ’ ’
"To make a good road,” Commis
sioner Budd says, “is one thing; to keep
it in good repair is quite another. The
fine roads of Europe are the result of a
splendid repair system, where every de
fect. is remedied before it has time to
cause serious damage to the highway. ”
The lesson that has come out of the
six years’ experience is that any kind of
earth, well drained and rolled, is the
very best foundation for stone or other
material. “Eight inches, properly laid
and rolled upon a solid earth foundation,
will sustain as heavy a load without de
pressing as 18 inches. The experience of
the northern counties is that 4 inches
of macadam on a well drained surface
answers most of their requirements, and
fi inches is the maximum they require.
In tho middle counties they will have
no greater depth than 8 inches. But
in the lower counties, where the soil is
drier and presents the most desirable
foundation, they insist on roads 10 to 14
inches in depth, making the cost so great
that taxpayers are appalled. ”
NEW ENGLAND ROADS.
Massachusetts and Connecticut Making
Rapid Progress.
The progress made in the last year in
Massachusetts and Connecticut is most
encouraging. In the former state an ap
propriation of SBOO,OOO was provided a
year ago, and in 1890 the number of
miles of road built by the state advanced
from 89 to 130, the work being done in
many different localities, for the sake
of bringing its advantages before the
eyes of a large number of the people.
An appropriation of a like amount will
be sought this year. There is a strong
feeling in favor of continuing the policy
entered on three or four years ago, and
a number of “through routes” are con
templated in various directions.
Connecticut proceeds in a much more
modest way, its annual appropriation
being limited to $75,000. In the two
years since the state undertook the work
and appointed a highway commission,
however, the counties have contributed
the same amount us the state, and more
than $500,000 has been raised by the
towns for road improve meat,
The men who would rather pay SIOO
a year for shoeing horses and repairing
wagons than $lO a year for a good road
tax are still in the majority in many
regions. —Philadelphia Ledger.
ROADBUILDING PROBLEM.
It Is a Question Calling For Careful Stud;
and Intelligent Action.
“While the administrative part of
roadmaking in this country cannot be
said to have passed the experimental
stage,” says one of the constantly grow
ing number of “good roads” men to a
representative of the Philadelphia Press,
"yet it is well and actively begun.
Nearly every state in tho Union has
lately passed laws bearing on the pres
ent movement for improved highways.
While those laws show a variety of
plans and methods by which the one
common object is to be gained they
uniformly show that the real difficulty
is not how to build good roads as an
engineering problem, but rather who
shall build them, how shall tho money
be raised with which to build them,
PRICES WERE HIGH, BUT THEY COULDN’T GET
TO MARKET.
[From Good Roads.]
and by what agency shall it be expend
ed. And in successfully introducing
this movement these questions must
first be wisely settled before any actual
road construction can be engaged in.
Some pioneer work must be done before
any general plan can be intelligently
offered, much less accepted, for the com
prehensive treatment of our present bad
roads disorder.
“The abolition of the plan of poll tax
and the substitution of a cash payment
into a town or country road fund to bo
expended under contract to experienced
roadbuilders, superintended by a compe
tent county official, are two of the easy
steps by which a comprehensive plan can
bo approached. They are easy of execu
tion, and the immediate results are so
favorable that the farmer at once agrees
to tho wisdom of tho plan. To put into
operation a- law which will place a
slight tax upon the narrow tire is an
other means of getting those most in
terested to appreciate that the road
question must receive intelligent treat
ment not only at the hands of our legis
lators, hut from every citizen whose
business has anything to do with roads.
“Several states have passed the early
stages of the work and are now carry
ing out carefully devised plans for ulti
mately bringing the community into
full enjoyment of good roads. It is a
long step between these simple prelimi
naries and the larger plan. To hasten
progress all states now acknowledged as
leaders in this work, such as New Jer
sey, California, Vermont, New Hamp
shire, New York, Massachusetts and
Rhode Island, have appointed commis
sions to give special study to the ques
tions in all its relations to the state and
report back to the legislatures with rec
ommendations touching future legisla
tion and particular plans for developing
a systematic state road system. ”
IMPROVED HIGHWAYS.
Once the People Get Them They Wifi
Be Satisfied With No Other.
Once a community finds out that good
roads are possible all the year round and
that they are cheaper by all odds than
poor roads it will insist on having high
ways that are a public comfort and con
venience.
"The best is the cheapest” applies to
nothing else with more force than to
roads. The farmers are learning this
fact, and only the fear of greatly in
creased taxes keeps them from pushing
the movement for getting the best stone
highways.
This objection is now being overcome
by following some plan whereby the
whole property of the state—city and
country—is being taxed to build the
country roads through a system whereby
state aid is being extended to communi
ties and help is offered those that offer
to help themselves
It is a matter of uncertainty which
need fixing most—the roads or the road
laws of this country. Fixing the latter
will do much toward correcting the
former.
In a legislative way a good deal is
being done. In the matter of the actual
work of fixing the highways there must
of necessity be a great improvement in
work and methods. —Good Roads.
To ltuild Good Roads.
To he worth anything at all a road
must be constructed scientifically, says
the St. Paul Globe. The system of
“mending” roads in vogue in this coun
try from colonial times is worse than
nothing. All labor and money so ex
pended are utterly wasted. There is but
one kind of road that deserves the ad
jective "good,” and that is a highway
constructed under competent engineer
ing supervision according to scientific
ally approved methods. It must have a
substantial foundation, a good surfac
ing and a careful system of inspection
and repair. Theso matters should not be
left to local guidance. There ought to
be a state engineer for road construc
tion, by whose directions the work
must be carried on everywhere.
Xaioual Road Congress.
The committee on resolutions of the
national good roads congress at Orlando
reported a resolution favoring the enact
ment of laws by which all classes and
interests must bear the burden of road
improvement. A subsequent resolution
provided that the state should not boar
more than one-third of the expense, the
rest to be borne by counties or individ
uals immediately interested.
O
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select circulation of any
newspaper published in
Georgia
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SIR WILLIAM T. STEAD.
The Queen May Make the Great Radical
a Knight Very Soon.
Now that we are soon to celebrate the
queen’s diamond jubilee, the sixtieth
anniversary of her reign, we may also
expect a big batch of new knights and
baronets, shining medals and glittering
decorations. L hear that among those
who are most likely to be knighted is
W. T. Stead, the quondam radical re
former of The Pall Mall Gazette, the
present loyally conservative but frankly
outspoken editor of The Review of Re
views:
In a recent number of his periodical
Stead has given us an interesting and
ingenious account of his personal con
version from the doctrine of republican
ism to the doctrine of royalism. He
started as a young man by believing in
a president or a protector like Crom
well. He now tosses up his hat, meta
phorically, for Queen Victoria.
Seven years ago Stead was sent to jail
for writing and publishing certain sen
sational articles in which the vices of
the nobility were pretty severely casti
gated. I should be surprised if in this
year of grace Stead didn’t receive a han
dle to his name as a reward for his re
cent change of heart. Gladstone reward
ed Sir George Newnes. I shouldn’t won
der if Salisbury and Balfour permanent
ly conciliated Stead.—London Cor.
Washington Post.
The Efficacy of I’rayer.
The other night, at the holiness meet
ing, the Rev. T. C. Eason astonished
many of those present by professing
sanctification. He related his experience
at length, a part of which is to the ef
fect that while trying to quit the use of
tobacco after being sanctified he felt
great annoyance and even pain over his
craving for the weed, but when he and
his friends prayed that such annoyance
be removed he received almost instanta
neous relief.—Galveston Newu
Nevada Slay Have a Rival.
Idaho may go Into a<competitive busi
ness with Nevada to secure prizefights
fcs a means of advertising the state and
promoting the art of self defense.
A bill, which in many respects fol
lows the lines of the Nevada law legal
izing glove contests, has been intro
duced in the house.
The license is fixed at $5,000, but
this, it is understood, is for’the purpose
of giving latitude in the mutter of cut
ting.
MORGAN’S ESCAPE.
The Veteran Senator Just Missed lieing
Hit With an Inkstand.
A veteran correspondent was toying
innocently the other day in the senate
press gallery with an empty inkstand.
He twirled the glass cover round and
round while Senator Morgan talked and
talked of the Nicaragua canal bill and
the awful things threatened by Great
Britain.
The cofrespondent pulled the inkstand
out of its place and twirled the cover
again. Senator Morgan’s eloquent peri
od drew his attention, and the inkstand
was forgotten. It hung in his limp fin
gers, and then there was a resounding
thud on the senate floor as an object sped
by the head of the senator who was pre
. siding over the august body.
Senator Morgan paused in the midst
of his eloquent period, and the attention
of the august body was diverted to the
fleeing form of the correspondent. He
and another who sat beside him disap
peared through the gallery doors. They
were seen no more that afternoon at the
capitol. An officer from the sergeant-at
arms’ office is looking for them. Now
the inkstands will be clamped down.—
Washington Post.
A Hole In His Skull.
The cast of R. R. Merrigold, an in
mate of the Brown county (S. D.) hos
pital, is a puzzle to the medical frater
nity. The patient has lived for a num
ber of years with a large and growing
hole in his skull. The brains are covered
only by the skin of the scalp. The hole
is circular in form, about five inches in
diameter and is located just above the
left ear. When first brought to the at
tention of physicians, the hole in the
skull was only about two inches across,
but it has been gradually increasing in
size. The cause of the bone disease that
is eating away the skull is unknown.
Merrigold, who is 76 years of age, was
taken to the hospital from the village
of Rondell about 4}4 years ago. When
first taken there, he was perfectly sane,
but his mind has since been gradually
giving way.
A Woman's Hotel.
Real estate men are talking of the
project to erect a woman’s hotel on
Fifth avenue, New York. It is to cost
$2,000,000, and includes a woman’s
bank, apartments, exchange, hotel, re
ception rooms—everything but a wom
an’s cook stove.