Thomas County cat., 1886-08-12
ROAD CONSTRUCTION.


BONE Points to Be Taken Into co,.,A.
sratioa by Road Supervisors.
Evenness in the surface Of the road
bed is essential to q comfortable and
| durable road. The common fault il
to throw up the center with q plow,
and, perhaps, dump piles of dirt with
the scoop here and there, leaving it to
be leveled down by wear of teams
passing over it. The result is road
bed made up of humps and mud
holes, which can never be made into
good road by hauling on gravel, as tho
gravel will be thick in some places
and thin in others; and, though the
surface of the ground be finished
evenly, it will settle unevenly. and the
low places in the road-bed hold water
and the gravel settles more there. and
is by degrees forced into the soil by
travel. This point of finishing up the
road bed at time of grading it, so that
the surface is even and true to grade,
and so water will not stand or gather
at any place short of the cutters, is
essential to a good, lasting road.
Neglect in securing this, entails evils
which can never be corrected so fully
by increasing the amount of gravel as
to prevent the tendency to uneven set
Ting of the road. This evenness of
surface in grading once secured, the
foundation is laid for good road. 1t
remains only to be evenly covered with
enough clean gravel to prevent cutting
through or sinking unevenly. This
means several things, and the amount
of gravel required depends, first on
the quality of the gravel; second. on
the kind of soil and completeness of
drainage in road-bed; and third. on
the kind and amount of travel on the
road. Hence, it is hard to fix tho
thickness of gravel; good judgment
must settle that.
First as to the gravel. This varies
in quality in every stream and every
gravel-pit. Material which is mostly
sand with few stones mixed in as big
as ones double fist is unfit to use on .
road which has had a first-class road
bed and cutters made. A good. first
class road can not be made from such
material. 1t may for time not cut
into ruts or get muddy and sticky. but
it never will pack evenly and MAKE q
smooth road. The jolt over stone
pitches the vehicles so as to soon cut
out hole, great or small, where water
will gather and facilitate the work Of
grinding out holes near the big stones.
1t is misnomer to call SUCH material
gravel. This stuff is not fit to even
put in the bottom of much-used high
way, for sooner or later the stones will
appear to cause joiting and gouging
out holes in a road which, without the
presence of such distractions, would
wear evenly and keep smooth and solid.
Clean gravel free from dirt and
stones will pack uniformly, make a
smooth road, and last indefinitely.
This, then, means chat when teams are
hauling gravel, it is the duty of the SUI
pervisor to see that one team does not
bring a load of sand and loam and che
next Of coarse gravel. and thus make
the gravel road-bed of so unequal text
ure that it will never pack evenly and
will soon wear more in one place than
another. and be full of holes in short
time,
Roads made in this careless way cost
about as much as those made well,
and will not wear half so long and
never will be a comfort to the COM
munity using them. know of road
that built twelve years ago, that has
had heavy hauling of gravel and stone
beside the common use of farmers
hauling grain and wood and logs, and
yet it is free from ruts and has no
holes. Near it is road made seven
years ago by supervisor who never
takes time to do any thing Thoroughly.
The latter road has been twice
dressed with gravel, while the former
has never had any dressing with gravel
in twelve years. The well-built road
cost no more per rod than the poorly
built one. except the increased care OF
the supervisor to see that the grading
was properly done. and the gravel was
good and of uniform quality and even
ly spread as fast as dropped from the
wagon.
The true economy in road-building,
like all other work of public nature,
is to build thoroughly and honestly.
The Cheap Johns among our road and
bridge builders are the chaps who in
the long run cost our counties vast
wastes of money.-COr. Oiio Farmer.