The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-08-17
Road Drainage.
rY Il. c. CARPENTER, C. f., OF THE
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

the mud; wearing out patience and
killing horses, or have broken vehi-
cles over bare corduroy roads, or
in dry ruts, ever since the first
clearings were commenced, with no
diminution of the mud and very few
less ruts. Many courses of i'm
provement have been pointed out,
which if put into operation would
certainly have transformed our poor
roads into excellent highways; but
the enormous cost of the methods
proposed in most instances has not
only prevented any actual steps be-
ing taken, but has actually driven
away all hopes of improvement.
Many of us are becoming recon-
ciled to this hard fate, and try to
shape our business so that we shall
have the help of the weather as a
road-maker. We find many incon-
venienccs from this, for when roads
arc poorest, produce is highest, and
when they are utterly impossible,
the produce in the market is sold
at the price Of the seller.
Again, we lose money by wasting
time on the road that could better
be spent at home working. For in
stance, there is q stretch of road
near here which during a great por-
ton Of the year is so bad that two
miles an hour is q good rate, and
requires as much work from the
horses and time from the travellers
as to pass over six miles on a good
road; consequently, reckoning rs
we would in harvest time, it takes
three men to do the work Of one,
and could the wasted time have been
proftably employed, it would have
saved much hired labor at home.
1t seems to me that a mistake has
been made in asserting that we must
have roads that will compare favor
ably with the paved streets Of q
city, or else go without anything
fit to be called roads.
| think have discovered cheap
CT way out Of this difficulty, which,
though it does not give us paved
roads, does give us better roads,
and, what is best Of all in these
hard times, costs us no more money
than our present poor roads. In
the first place, you all know that,
with the exception Of our sandy
roads, they arc certainly passable,
if not in excellent condition, during
dry weather. If these roads could
be kept dry, so that they would not
be muddy during wet weather, ruts
would not form and they would be
quite smooth during dry weather,
as well as hard and pleasant during
wet weather. The question at once
arises, how to keep them dry. If
you build sheds over them, it will
cost as much as pavcmcnts and will
not make as good II road. How,
then, can it be done? We have all
noticed how road through a swamp
is improved by raising the middle
by earth from bitches along the side,
and all know the reason is because
the earth so raised is made COM
paratively dry. Turnpiking i'm
proves wet land for the same reason.
Six inches or one foot of sand put
on a clay road allows the moisture
to pass off and improves the road
in wet weather. All these consid-
crations should lead us to infer that
if means in abundance were provid-
cd for the water to escape, our roads
would be kept comparatively dry
all the time. Experience, in n
great many instances, is entirely in
harmony with this idea, and so far
as | know, wherever thorough
system of road drainage has been
adopted, great Improvement for
small cost has been secured.
1t is II sad fact, but the import
ancc of good drainage has frequent
ly been overlooked, even by profess
sional road-makcrs. | remember
once seeing u Nicholson pavement,
laid with great expense on soil so
nearly saturated with water as to
be almost miry; and the result, in
less than year, was general dis
placement of the blocks that formed
the pavement, many Of them stand
ing nearly on edge. Costly broken
stone roads, even though built with
care, if on u wet foundation, can
but result in failure. In fact, cx-
pcrience as well as theory demon
stratcs without doubt that thorough
drainage is the only proper prepa-
ration for a good road.
The methods in use for securing
this drainage comprehend both open
and covered drains and their COM
5lnation.
OPEN DRAINS
alone are not very efficient; they
must always be on the side of the
road; they can not be made deep,
or if they arc made so, they rapidly
fill up; their sides must be made
very Aat,-so fiat that in most soils
they should rise but one foot in go
ing six horizontally, to prevent
washing of the sides. Hence VIC
see that, since they can not be very
deep, they can take off only the sur
face water, and the sub-soil is left
as miry as before. Again, in order
to prevent filing, great deal of
earth must be taken out, and even
then washing can not entirely be
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