ROADS

A study of the road map will present in outline form the present condition of the public highways of this township. Out of approximately seventy-two miles of road, there are about twelve miles of gravelled roadbed. About sixty miles of these roads belong to this township as far as road-work is concerned. The farmers have gravelled approximately nine miles of road-bed here and there as indicated by dots on the map. A stretch of road leading out of N. going south two miles, then turning east for one mile, has been graded and gravelled under the direction of the State Highway Commission. Thus there is a total of about twelve miles of gravelled road-bed. This is about twenty per cent of the travelled highway. According to the State Highway Commission this "is above the average." Their road census shows that on the average approximately ten per cent of the highways have been improved with gravel or macadam.

The roads not gravelled have been mapped as "Fair Dirt Grade" and as "Bad Road-Bed." As will be seen, about thirty per cent of the total highway comes under the last classification. The objection may be made by those who are acquainted with roads in this township that some of this highway has never been travelled, is used very little at present and, therefore, deserves but little attention. There is validity in this objection for one or two short stretches, but most of the highway designated as "Bad Road" is not travelled simply because it is practically impossible to travel it. It will be noted that most of the bad road is found along the southern border of the township. This is due largely to the fact that these roads are just on the dividing line between the traffic that goes south and that which goes north. But here, too, it would seem that these roads would be used very much more if they were passable for a team with "a load of any size." This territory is very hilly. Although some of the steepest hills have been skirted, many bad inclines remain and make this road hard to keep in shape.

There are about forty-two miles of road that come under the heading of "Fair Dirt Grade." This constitutes the typical country, where the road-bed has been worked and drained well enough to be passable the year around. As every one knows who has travelled country roads much, their condition varies according to the season of the year. In midsummer or harvest time, after a season of dry weather, they become smooth and are generally covered with loose dust, the depth of which depends upon traffic. In the spring or fall, however, during and for a while after a rainy season, these roads are "in a bad shape." No heavy loads can be hauled at such times. Yet they are never so bad but that farmers can haul their milk or cream to town. The low soft spots are pretty well filled up with

rock or gravel, so that the main highways are always passable, even if traffic is slowed up considerably by the muddy and slippery condition of the roads. For a week or so after the "wet spells" these roads are rough and often cut up with deep ruts. This condition gradually gives way to smoothness and dust as the roads are travelled with broad-tired wagons and the daily milk rigs.

Gravel

Poor dirt road
Road map.

Fair dirt road

We have seen what the condition of the roads in this township is, and at the same time attention has been called to the fact that, though for total road improvement this township ranks higher than the average, nevertheless there remain stretches of poor dirt road which tend to make the marketing seasonal. In the previous chapter it was pointed out that at times it would cost more than two and one-half times as much to market the farm products as it costs when the roads are dry and in good shape. It

is important to know by what system and methods these roads have been constructed and are now being maintained.

This township has always worked its roads under the old system. As is well known to rural people this system provides for a yearly levy of road tax by the town board, this tax to be "worked off" by the farmer against whom it is levied. Though the state law does not specify the limits of the rate of this tax, it appears to be customary to levy a tax of twenty-five cents on every hundred dollars of the assessed valuation of taxable property; hence a two and one-half mill rate. This local levy, as already stated, is worked out by the farmers themselves. Since it furnishes by far the most important part of the local road work, let us see how efficiently the work is done.

The township is divided into districts, each having from three to six miles of road to look after. The division into districts is done by the supervisors and, in making these divisions, much local politics is often played. The supervisors are, of course, appealed to from many different parties as to how the districts are to be laid out. No matter how conscientious they may be, great inequalities in tasks may be allotted to the different districts. We have already seen how the roads of the southern part of this township are in very bad condition. This is largely due to the insufficiency of the tax levy and yet the people of this district were taxed at the same rate as those of the districts farther north. Their land is of less value, in among the hills, and their roads require the most work. The people of the good-road districts argue that the people out south "never put in an honest day's work in all the fifty years that they've been at it. They've been loafing around, lying in the shade of the trees by the roadside, while we people were busy grading and gravelling." While it no doubt is true that there are districts where the farmers "do not do an honest day's work when they're putting in time on the road," this practice is by no means limited to the southern districts. They haven't gravelled because no gravel pits are near. Their roads are so bad in many places that "they've simply got to get out and dig to keep the roads at all passable.”

One of these districts, having three miles of this hilly road to work, had a total of only about thirty-five dollars to be put into road work. They worked hard and faithfully and yet the best they could do this year was to fix about fifteen rods of road on one of the worst hills. There were three hills in the district, almost impassable after a rain. In another adjoining district the pathmaster complained that he had "fixed up one hill as far as our district extended, but the upper stretch on the long hill belonged to another boss; he wouldn't fix up his end, so after the first big rain, all of our district's work was washed away. That is the way we