BUST PREVENTION IN AMERICA.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 43, 19 August 1902, Page 6

BUST PREVENTION IN AMERICA.

According to late American experience municipal authorities need cudgel their brains no longer in searching out a means of dealing with the dust fiend, which is tho source of so much discomfort and vexation every summer. There can be no two opinions (nays Melbourne Age) that the present method of keeping tiiis pest down is not only expensive, but also entirely unsatisfactory, so it is time we tried a better method ot coping with the evil. The latest method adopted in America is the use of crude petroleum oil, which not only settles the dust, but is also cheap, and makes the roads firmer and more durable. .It has had a thorough trial in many American cities, including San Francisco, Los Angelas, Sacramento, Cullon, and Redhtndb, on the Pacific Coast. In other places it is still on trial, being used on roads which were formerly very expensive to keep free from dust. In many large towns, however, oil is tin accepted institution, and is not only used on stivuls, but also on country roadways leading U> the city. Americans chum tiuiny advantages for the use of oil^ owr the ordinary system of street watering. It does away with watering carts and the expense of keeping horses ; the streets only require a spray of oil twice a year to keep them entirely free from rising dust ; it has a hardening effect on the roads, nnd gives a smooth, firm surface^ that , allows either an increase of load or greatly decreases the strain on horseflesh, while the cost of maintaining the roads is considerably lessened in consequence of the binding and strengthening effect of the oil. By the use of the on in San Franci&o the Coun- ? cil not only kept tin dust down properly, which water would not do, but in one yenr they saved no less than £l'2ou nnd 70,000 gallons of water per day, while the local authorities of the City of Calton compute that they have euected a saving of 45 per cent. The Scientific American strongly recommends the use ofethe oil, while the American Mining and Engineering Review sayß:— "Very soon the Board of Supervisors which permits roads to be left without this almost magical top dressing of oil wilf be considered derelict in its duty." Our municipal authorities should not hesitate to give this method a fair trial during the incoming Rummer.