ple had quite recently acquired many electric appliances and had become dependent on electricity. When it was suddenly cut off, they were forced to go back to former ways of doing things. This was made even more inconvenient if they had disposed of gas-powered washers, irons, lamps or other equipment they had used prior to converting to electricity.

HIGHWAYS

From the report of Division Engineer for Prince County, William H. MacDougall, December 31, 1935: The nine Power Graders operating in the County, widened and improved 154 miles of road. ...some of the roads, or parts of them, included Park Road, Bideford; Penwarden Road, Mt. Pleasant; Ellerslie Road; and Arlington Road... These machines were also used to open I70 chains of tap drains through fields adjoining the road. The machines were also used for stumping, and for lessening grades and making fills by dragging clay off the hills into the hollows.

During the season. of 1935, there were 24,300 tons of shore and pit gravel placed on the roads in various sections of Prince County, covering a dis- tance of 63 3/4 miles surfaced. This gravel was all local Island material, taken from shores and pits. The pit gravel was excavated from pits, includ- ing Murphy's, East Bideford; Ramsay ‘s, Poplar Grove; Williams’s, Tyne Valley; and McLean’s and McArthur’s, Birch Hill....The gravel pit at Ramsay’s, Poplar Grove, was cleaned off and 34 cars of gravel were exca- vated from it and shipped from McNeill’s Mills and Ellerslie Stations to points in the eastern part of this County, and to the other Counties where no gravel was available. Stretches of road surfaced with gravel include: Northam, 3/8 mile; Tyne Valley, 3/4 mile; Birch Hill, 5/8 mile; Port Hill, 5/8 mile; Bideford, 3/4 mile; and Poplar Grove, 1/2 mile.

From report of William H. MacDougall, County Engineer. December 31, 1940: New purchases of snow plows made two available for use in Prince County, and as a result the paved roads were kept open for wheeled traffic as long as it was deemed prudent to do so.

To help lighten the work of the plows by reducing the number of heavy. drifts, 19,000 lineal feet of snow fence was erected in the worst places for drifts along the paved highway.

In the early spring, ditches were cut through the snow and ice, to prevent the freshet water from washing away the shoulders of the road.

Other work done towards maintaining the paved highway, consisted of

CHAPTER FOUR ~ MOVING ON 85