Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1867-06-27
Roads and Road-Making.

| Hltn near DHnuuSkNi VINO HHu tloN
eled a good deal in both hemls
pheres, writes to the Sandusky Reg
lister concerning roads:
We are getting walked up in ouI
> town about road matters, and 1t il
high time, for one is likely to break
his neck, wagon or something else
if he travels on them.
Perhaps the best roads and drives
. are in and around Paris. In their
construction, they first drain them
and then lay down a heavy super
structure Of large flat stones and
cover with small stones then, with
a heavy coat Of fine flint and large
gravel, which they moisten and roll
down with an iron roller, until it be-
comes perfectly solid and smooth
50 that a carriage tire will not even
make a mark on it.
The roads in England are
smoothed out something like our
railroads, and graded so that a span
Of horses will take the usual load Of
two tuns on them with ease. The
culverts are all arched with stone
and made durable. They lay q
heavy bed Of large fiat stones lap
ped on one another. something
like Tapped furrow slice, then COW
er with smaller stone, then with a
gravel coat or small broken stone.
There roads never cut through.
Very firm roads are made in Cen
tral Park, New York, by laying
down a heavy body of all kinds of
stone, and putting on a thick coat
of fine gravel and rolling down
smooth; when it cuts up, they har-
row it over and wet it, and again
roll down smooth. My opinion is
that the best and cheapest way of
making our country roads, is to lay
down heavy bed of our large fiat
lime stone similar to the English
mode, about II feet in width on the
ris hit side of the road going to
town, and then put heavy coating
Of tiinty stone, broken fine and COW
er with good coat of common
sand. Then on the left side throw
up with ocrapcr a dirt road some
ID or l6 feet in width. The dirt
will be the best in dry time, and
the stone best in a wet time, be-
sides it will save the wear of the
stone road, which wears most in
dry weather as it is cut into dust
and blown away.
We ought to construct a small
piece Of this road every year and it
need not be very expensive; it can
be made after harvest when we are
not very busy. | know that in our
own district if township will fur
nish the stone, we will turn out and
haul them free, and suppose other
districts will do the same. 1t is on.
ly about third of the roads in
our township requires stone at all,
the other part is sound and needs
only to be thr6Wh'Qp well and the
water drained off the draining of
our land will pay for that. Our
roads will then be growing better
instead of worse, and it will be Il
good investment, and | think we
shall be satisfied with it. | have
.ong' claimed that the plan Of filling
The holes with stone was bad it
may do weh forthe present but in
he end it will make two holes in
stead Of one, and you can never use
-he long road scraper to advantage.
The long road scraper will do
noP work than ten men and make
I splendid road in dry weather and
shotAd'be oftener used.
About the worst feature in the
of our roads is the
practice of working them only once
1 year and then never thinking of
hem again, no mattcrhow bad they
ret. We ought to have more or
ess work on them throughout the
'ntire season, for it is much less
work to fill small mud hole than
o fill a large one. In Europe they
,ut men on the road when it is nee
ssary. As soon as the rut is seel
t is filled Immediately by broken
tone, large heaps of which are
-ept lying along the road ready for
Sc. Our dirt roads should have
broad base, and the ditch should
OF be too close to the road, well
rained, and then the road will dry
If. When the ditch is close to the
Dad the capillary attraction will al
'ays keep the roads moist.-0Mo
'Nfmer.