The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-04-30
Road Making and Hending.

The work should be done early in the sea-
son, as soon as the road is sufficiently settled
not to be damaged by teaming on it. All
know that tillage land worked in wet con-
diton, will settle down hard and remain so
during the rest of the season. The same
rule will hold good in working road. Ma
terial put in early settles down hard and
makes firm surface; put on late, it remains
loose and is displaced by the wheels all
through the season. One dollar applied in
April will do as much good as two in June or
later. The best material for making repairs
is good coarse gravel. 1t is better to pur-
chase good gravel and draw it long distance
than to put on soil, clay and sods. which are
the materials too often used for the purpose.
The blowing up of the sides OF the road and
throwing the material thus obtained into the
path is poor practice, unless it is to receive
good covering of gravel, as the sand and
soil have often been thrown in before and as
often been washed out. 1t makes poor aud
muddy road and is damage instead of
benefit.
Many Of the improved road scrapers, made
for the purpose, do good work, and much
cheaper than the same amount of work can
be done in any other way. 1t would be a
good investment for every town to have one
for the use of the different highway districts.
Roads not much used, which have become
then leveled with hoes; thus long piece OF
road may be put in good order at small ex-
pense. Often no more material is wanted;
it only needs putting in place and the surface
put in proper shape. Such roads may be
easily plowed early in the season, just as the
frost is out.
Water is the greatest hindrance to keeping
and maintaining a good road. The path
should be sufficiently rounded to shed all sur
fann n,el,1 loA 4
the top Of a hill. So self-evident is this that
but few need to be told of it, yet but few sue
coed in doing it efectually. By allowing
water to run down in the path frequent and
costly repairs are made necessary. The
water-bars made to prevent it are often so
awkwardly constructed as to be dangerous to
ride over. Water which comes from under
meath can only be remedied by drainage.
1t is useless to pile on material with the idea
of getting above the water, as it will work up
through and make the road soft and wet. A
good open drain should be maintained at
each side of the road to carry off stagnant
water which may accumulate. Where the
road is wet from beneath there is no better
remedy than tile drainage. 1t will generally
be much easier to sink the water-line than to
raise the road bed, and one or the other must
be done before good road can be had.
Rocks and stones should be removed from
wheels of passing vehicles, and are serious
source of annoyance to travellers. The stones
which do the most damage are small and are
brought to the surface by the action of frost,
and may be easily removed with a crowbar.
This should be attended to every spring.
Loose cobble stones may be easily removed
with an iron garden rake 1t would pay
we'll TO have man go over all the roads in
town two or three times during the season
and remove the small stones as thev are both
troublesome and dangerous.
The cuverts should be kept in good condi.
ton, so that any sudden freshet may pass off
quickly and not do much damage. When
this is neglected, much expense is often in
CURED in making repairs which would not
have been needed had the bridges been kept
in order.
A good road should be wide enough for
two teams to pass each other in safety, and
as free from bad places as possible, as no
more load can be carried than the team can
draw over the worst part of the road. If
one-third of the load must be left behind be-
cause ene.eighth of the road is bad, it is quite
serious loss and heavy addition to the
cost OF transportation. Mirror and
Farmer.