Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1880 — About Country Roads. [ARTICLE]

About Country Roads.

Although we are a boastful people, we npver brag about the’, common wagon roads of the country. If they were capable of being transported, we should not be tempted to exhibit them at any international fair. Our highest authority on the subject declares that the common roads of the United States are inferior to those of any other civilized country. All our citizens who have been abroad, agree in the above opinion. Even the “ barbarous Turk” construct better roads than the civilized American. We “ beat the world” in the matter of wheeled vehicles of every kind, bat we pay very little attention to the roads over which they are to run. We have neglected the science and art of road-making almost entirely. Few treatises on the constriction of such roads have ever been published in the country, and they hive had a very limited sale. With a road on nearly every section line, one may travel a hundred miles without finding an expert at roadmaking. There are various things that serve to account for the badness of our roads. The country is new, and the construction of fine roads is usually the result of considerable time. Our population is scattered, and to supply all portions of the country with good roads would involve a heavier tax on the community than is required in countries that are densely peopled. In the West, where the roads are generally worse than in any sectioh of the. country, farmers are commonly engaged in improving their property, and they find it hard to make public improvements at the same time. As a rule, the roads are more numerous than the wants of the general public actually require. Every fanner, even if he owns but forty acres of land, wants a road on one side of his premises, and he expects that it will Be laid ont, constructed and kept in repair at public cost. The great number of roads serves to make them all very miserable. Our numerous railroads have operated against tjie construction of earth roads us the excellence of thosd found in foreign rounfrifis. The fine rands seen abroad were generally made before railroads were thought of, and the present generation is only taxed to keep them in repairs. Many portions of the West were supplied with railroads before any earth roads were constructed. This being the case, settlers only concerned themselves about roads leading from their farms to the nearest station. In some sections so many railroads were projected that farmers waited to see if one would not pass their doors before they thought to construct a common road to a station on some existing railway line at considerable distance from their places. As a rule they were heavily taxed in some way for the railroads, and they accordingly thought themselves too poor to spend much on common roads. ' ■

In many portions of the prairie region of the West materials for the construction of public road-beds are scarce, and the ordinary soil is as bad for making roads as it is good for producing crops. It is soft, porous, retentive of moisture, and easily washed. On the low and flat prairies there are few facilities for proper drainage. The ditches made at the sides of roads for the purpose of carrying off water are easily filled with earth, owing to insufficient fall. In many cases tne ditches become simply reservoirs for holding water. The porous charactei of the earth of which the road is constructed causes it to absorb the water and to keep it saturated for days and weeks after a rain. Such is the action of the water in ditches on the roads they are intended to drain that the public highway affords a much poorer passage for teams than the adjoining private fields or open prairies. Another thing that has operated against the construction and maintenance of good roads is the general lack of local pride concerning them. Towns emulate each other in tne construction of school-houses and other public buddings. There is great rivalry among different denominations about the building of elegant churches. But there seems to be no pride, emulation, or spirit of rivalry on the subject of fine roads. It is often difficult to find a hall in a village of sufficient capacity to accommodate the people that will assemble at a meeting called in the interest of some projected railroad. But a meeting held for the purpose of arousing public sentiment on the subject of better earth roads, on which anyone can travel without cost, would not be attended by a down people, and moat

of them <* the and other people Hvfair in the country often complain of the expenae attending the construction of good roads.! They do not like topef for them. They mem to forget that tojyay for poor^roads flesh, break harnesses and destroy wagons. and carriages. They prevent making quick trips and hauling large loads. The/ often operate against the interest of farmers in rarious ways. The condition of earth roads generally depends on the State of the weather. During ami soon after heavy rains they are almost impassable. As a consequence fanners are generally obliged to market < their crops and took when the roads happen to be in good condition. It often becurs that at these times produce is low, while freights are high, and that the reverse is the case when the roads, owing to want of proper construction, are in very bad condition. Neither town nor village people seem to properly appreciate the value of good gublic roads. The former axe indebted > them* for the principal portion of their trade and the patronage given to mechanics. The latter owe much of their financial prosperity, as well as most of their social pleasures, religious advantages, and the means of intellectual culture, to the Condition of the roads leading from their homes to the large towns In the yicinity. . At the present time there is nothing by way of public improvements that is so much entitled to, attention as the common roads throughout the west. As a rule, there is no lack of sufficient railroads and other means of public conveyance and transportation. In nearly every considerable town there are commodious school-houses and spacious halls and churches. But the roads are abominable. They are little less than a disgrace to our Chicaoo Times.