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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

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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