Road Making in
Manitoba
By. Jas. Dale 4-6-14
This part of labour has not been given the attention it should have up
to the present time at least. In some locations the old trails as used
15 or 16 years ago are still doing service. As good roads are just as
important as good farming, and as good farming improves a locality
there is nothing that will so materially increase the value of land and
of the district it is situated in than good roads. As the governments
both local and Dominion have had all they could do to the present time
to give us railway facilities, we could not expect the money to come
from this source. Then as this most important of public benefits is
left almost entirely in the hands of municipalities we must look to
this source almost entirely for either good roads or questionable
utility. Statute labour and municipal grants are the only sources from
which we can expect much help unless we take the matter into our own
hands and do volunteer labour, which in some cases is the only speedy
remedy. We will now take up the matter as a public question. The
municipal councils have the power to grant moneys and also to see that
it is properly and carefully expended for roads and bridges. In some of
our municipalities the council takes the supervision of all the money
so set apart for such use, while in others each ward, through its
councilor, has the expending of the money; this method, while its
seems but fait to the ward so concerned, in practice does not produce
the results in giving us leading roads that it should. In each
municipality there are or should be leading roads to the principal
markets either in the said locality or the nearest good or convenient
market to it. Each council should have some system of roads and
of road making for such leading roads and all of the moneys granted for
a few years should be directed by the council to be expended on such
leading roads in whatever direction they run to such markets as I have
stated. Where there are six or more wards in a municipality and each
councilor has expending of all the money granted to such a ward, it
certainly is open to the objection that we will have as many systems as
there are wards. Again, in loading for market, unless there is a
continuous good road we can only load for the worst part of such road.
No odds how good the rest may be: then it is important that these
leading roads should be good their whole length. Now if all the money
granted could not be set apart for these leading roads then the greater
part of it should be, say 2 thirds of it at least, and let the statute
labor or most of it be put in the bye roads leading to the principal
ones.
As to bridges, this is open to the same objections that I have stated
above, bridges being, or should be, of a permanent character it is
important that they should be built on some well approved plan and
strong enough and wide enough for not only the present but
for future use as well. As it is easily to find defects and not
so easy to remedy such would it not be well to offer
some remedy. For continuous good roads
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we must have an equal and uniform
grade as well as good drainage. From observation there is no cheaper
plan than a grader by from 4 to 8 teams of horses such a grader will
finish from ½ mile to 1 mile per day, then the drainage,
with proper culverts or bridges, and the roads
are finished the entire length and with very little repair for
all time to come, while on the old plan with the ordinary scraper
I have passed over some roads where they have been made dangerous by
excavations of the sides to fill up the centre.
LANDS FOR SALE
On Easy Terms.
820 acres west half, sec 1, tp. 6, rge. 16. 240 acres arable, balance
hay and pasture. Morris-Brandon branch cuts through a corner of farm, 3
miles from Belmout close to school, no improvements, 40 tons hay cut
this year on same, arable land as good as any in the province. Price
$2,000. One third cash, balance to suit purchaser. 160 acres N.E
¼ sec 35, tp. 5, rge. 16. 95 acres arable, balance hay, and
pasture in good settlement, 4 miles from Belmont, unimproved, 0 tons
hay cut this season, arable laud first class. Price $ 2.000, one third
cash, balance to suit purchaser.
320 acres north ½ of sec. 21. tp 4,
rge. 15. Fine rich soil close to bush, 300 acres of it fit for
cultivation, a little light scrub on same, balance hay, no
improvements, 5 miles from
Belmout. This class of land is of the richest in the
province, a little harder to break up, but when
broken up is the finest
possible. School near, timber near,
good water. Price $2,200, one-third cash, balance
to suit purchaser.
For any of the above lands apply to the owner.
CHARLES CANNON.
Belmont Man.
TOWN OF BALDUR Capital of
Argyle
A Flourishing and Progressive Burg
The town of Baldur is most beautifully and favorably situated on a
level and high tract of land in the very heart of the municipality of
Argyle, and on the Morris-Brandon branch of the Northern Pacific
railway, 132 miles south west of Winnipeg, the great commercial city
of Western Canada, and 52 east of the famous wheat city of Brandon. It
is difficult to believe that prosperous and thriving town was nothing
but unclaimed prairie, with luxuriant growth of wild grass flower
only ten short years ago, the haunt and home of the wolf and wild fowl,
and the camping ground of the wandering Indian. Such was the case,
however, and at that time there were very few settlers in the district
surrounding the town of the present, what is now the firm foundations
of a rapidly growing business community, bordered with well cultivated
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