Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-12-27
Construction of Foot-walks.

Foot-walks about house and garden, more
especially in rural villages than on farms,
are often so poor as to cause inconvenience,
severe colds, serious diseases and at times
deaths, through feet and clothing wetted
by walking through grass-one of the ex-
ceedingly dangerous things Board walks
should be raised from the ground on four
inch foundations, be at least three feet
wide to keep the skirts dry, for women suf-
| fer more from wet clothing in this way
than men do; should be laid with close
Joints to prevent grass GROWING between
them, and the grass and weeds should be
kept closely cut on each side Where
gravel or coal ashes can be procured, spread
three inches thick and rolled firmly they
make excellent paths. The surface should
be rounded to give fall to the water and
proper drains should be made on the sides.
The disadvantage Of these walks is that
they will become covered with grass and
weeds if neglected. But a good coating of
cheap salt scattered over them will kill
everything but the coarse crab-grass which
appears in July, and boiling hot brine is
needed for this bad weed.
Cement paths are made Of various ma
terials gravel, coal ashes and broken stone
are best. The usual way Of making good
foot-walks is as follows: The material is
gathered in convenient place, and is
heated in box having sheet-iron bot
tom and mounted on a few stones. As the
stuff is made hot it is thrown in heap on
mixing board, and melted asphalt or gas
tar is poured over 1t, and the whole we'll
shovelled over until thoroughly incorpo-
rated, no more tar being used than will
merely coat the material and be absorbed
by it. The path is properly graded and
dug three or four inches dry coarse gravel
is first laid down and the prepared material
is spread two inches thick and well ram
med down. 1t is smoothed as we'll as pos
sible, and then busted over with dry sand
or fine ashes, and rolled until hard
smooth surface is made. This soon becomes
like rock and no weeds or moss will grow
upon it.
Another way is to make a concrete of
water-lime with gravel or ashes, or both.
These materials are put in heap and
wetted One barrel of water-lime is
mixed with three barrels of sharp, clean
sand, dry, being shovelled over back and
forth several times TO get thorough
mixture. A portion is then mixed with
water into thin, soft mortar and five
parts of the wet gravel or ashes are well
mixed with it, so that every fragment is
coated with the combining mortar. This
is important for obvious reasons. This
concrete is spread on the graded walk and
beaten down a hammer until the moisture
gathers on the surface. Some of the dry
sand or cement is then scattered over the
surface to absorb the moisture and the sur
face is smoothed over with plank rubber
having a sloping handle to work it back
and forth with In few days this is hard
and becomes harder with time. By max
ing divisions of thin strips of wood or
tarred paper the cement may be laid down
in blocks, square or diamond-shaped, and
for extra good walks the blocks may be
colored by mixing the finish coat with
brown or gray or other colors alternately
. Exchange.