I think, like many other taxpayers around here, that the coming Legislature should increase the appropriations for improving roads.

Yours very truly,

C. J. NEWMAN.

Mr. Henry I. Budd, State Commissioner of Public Roads, Trenton, N. J : DEAR SIR-The macadam roads in our borough, constructed two years, have proved a great success.

Our country roads, built in the same manner by the Board of Freeholders, are equally satisfactory, and our people are ready to meet any taxation for continued improvement in sparsely-settled districts.

It is hoped that no hesitation in our Legislature will prevent extended improvement throughout our entire State.

Dirt roads must go, and broad tires must be obligatory-by fines, if necessary.

Very truly yours,

B. W. BURNET.

GILLETTE, Morris County, N. J., Oct. 20th, 1898.

Mr. Henry I. Budd, State Commissioner of Public Roads, Trenton, N. J.:

DEAR SIR-Road improvement in our county has received a great deal of attention for a few years past, and the interest of the community in good roads has constantly increased until hardly an exception can be found, all being ardent advocates of good roads.

The fact the roads can be made in country places so that at any time of year crops can be moved and loads transported to market with ease and rapidity, and pleasure driving continued in winter as in summer, adds very greatly to the pleasure and profit of our people, when the roads are so made. We feel that the State should lend a helping hand in the accomplishment of this work to a greater extent than it has hitherto done. It seems to us that this proprietor, the State, can and should extend this aid that benefits the whole of her people.

Hoping that we may obtain an increased appropriatiou for this object, I remain, Yours very sincerely,

R. N. CORNISH.

RUTHERFORD, N. J., Oct. 10th, 1898.

Mr. Henry I. Budd, State Commissioner of Public Roads, Trenton, N. J.: DEAR SIR-I have talked with a number of the more progressive men in this county (Bergen), and they all, without exception, favor increasing the annual appropriation for State aid in road-building as largely as possible. They also favor the extension of State aid to all roads that may be called main thoroughfares in boroughs, villages, &c Many smaller municipalities find it difficult to secure the money necessary to improve even their main avenues of travel.

Last fall and this summer we have built at Lɔdi, N. J., under the writer's supervision as engineer, a little over three miles of macadam road, part four inches thick and part six inches. The road was built differently than any in this section, and, we think, is an improvement over the existing roads. The subgrade was first rolled with a heavy steam roller until very compact, all soft places being dug out and

refilled with suitable material. For four-inch roads, one-and one half-inch trap-rock was spread on to such thickness that it made a layer four inches thick after rolling. This layer was then rolled with a heavy twelve-and-one-half ton steam roller, until the roller made no impression on it and the stones would not move when walked upon. Fine limestone was then spread over the stone and well watered and rolled until all the interstices were filled and the water flushed and made mud on the surface. In this way we secured a very smooth, hard road, and one which is free from dust after the first winter. About 3,500 feet built this way last fall showed no ravel this summer, even though it was not sprinkled, and carried an average traffic of about 150 wagons per day.

We have had from three to four loads per day of seven and one-quarter tons per load on narrow tires go over these roads for about two weeks without their showing even a wheel mark, while the adjoining macadam has been badly rutted.

Inclosed find photo of road we built last fall, which was taken this summer. We think that it would be well if the Legislature would pass some laws governing the load to be carried per inch of tire on macadamized roads, or give localities having improved roads the right to pass ordinances governing the weight in relation to tire that could be carried over their roads, whether by local wagons or those coming from other parts. Something in this line is very badly needed.

Mr. Henry I. Budd, State Commissioner of Public Roads, Trenton, N. J.:

DEAR SIR-The roads now built in our county seem to be giving so much satisfaction that there are applications before the Board of Freeholders for extensions in both a southerly and an easterly direction reaching to the county line.

At first there was a strong feeling against them, and a great deal of work was required to get the requisite number of signers for the first road; but the feeling against them has died out, and the people are willing to pay the taxes necessary to build and maintain good roads; this is proven by the large number of applications for such roads now before the Board of Freeholders.

Articles have appeared in the Philadelphia papers asserting that the improved roads of New Jersey were being neglected-notably the one from Westville to Paulsboro. After a drive over the improved roads of Gloucester county, including the Westville and Paulsboro road, I can assure you they are in good condition. In some few places there are small ruts, but not large enough to retain the stone necessary to repair with.

Very truly yours,

JOHN G. WHITALL.

MORRISTOWN, N. J., Oct. 26th, 1898.

Mr. Henry I. Budd, State Commissioner of Public Roads, Trenton, N J.:

DEAR SIR-While we did not build as many miles of road in Morris county this year as last, the roads we did build were very important, as they were connecting links; that is, connected one macadam road with another. As a rule our roads wear very well.

Main St., Lodi, N. J., Bergen Co. After. Four-inch Macadam with Limestone binder and finish, extremely hard and does not ravel. W. C. Foster, Engineer.

A great many property-owners in this section were opposed to stone roads before any were constructed. They said dirt roads had always been good enough and were still. Now that they see the advantages of good roads, they have changed their opinions and would like to have stone roads all over. I think the more stone roads we build the more the people will see the advantages to be derived from them and the more stone roads they will demand.

Applications for roads are constantly coming in to the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Morris county under the State Aid act. We have applications enough now to use up all of next year's appropriation if we could get it.

Truly yours,

G. A. BECKER.

GLOUCESTER CITY, N. J., October 7th, 1898.

Mr. Henry I Budd, State Commissioner of Public Roads, Trenton, N. J.:

DEAR SIR-The number of teams carried by the Gloucester ferry from the 1st day of January until the 31st day of October, 1894 (this being before the stone roads were built), was 93,350, both ways. From January 1st until October 31st, 1898, when the stone roads were in full operation, we carried 121,606 teams both ways, this being an increase of about 27 per cent in 1898. Now, the Glassboro and Paulsboro roads are about finished and we find that our travel is still more increasing.

In reference to the number of baskets carried I can safely say that where the farmers, in 1894, carried about fifty to sixty baskets to a load, they now carry from one hundred to one hundred and seventy five baskets. The farmers at the present time carry 400 per cent. more fertilizer over this ferry than they ever did before. Before the stone roads were built the farmers conld not take over one load of fertilizer at a time, and then usually had three or four horses to a team; but at the present time, and since the building of the stone roads, we never have a farmer's team with more than two horses, and they are able to take four tons instead of one ton the entire distance to the farm. Very truly yours,

Mr. Henry I. Budd, State Commissioner of Public Roads, Trenton, N. J.: DEAR SIR-Although the wide-tire agitation has usually been considered a matter of recent history, it is not generally known that New Jersey, when yet a province of the English crown, had upon her statute-books a wide-tire law. One hundred and thirty-one years ago, in June, "An act to regulate carriages of burden within this colony" was passed. Thus read the preamble to this law of 1767:

"Whereas the difference in the track or running of waggons and wheel carriages of burden in the several counties of this colony is found by experience to be very inconvenient, and the narrowness of the fellies pressing or running on the ground to be prejudicial and destructive to the roads," it was enacted that all "waggons or carriages of burden to be drawn by four or more horses, oxen or other cattle" made after May 1st, 1768, traveling on the colony roads, and belonging to Jerseymen, "shall run or track on the ground, from center to center of the fellies, no less than five feet English measure under the penalty of twenty shillings" Regarding the