The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-12-13
ROAD MAKING.

ing Is our n0XG SreaG physical improve
ment for the whole Northwest. Ever
since I came to the West some sixty
years ago, have noticed wherever I
have been or Travelled that, on ground
thoroughly underdrained, our prairie
mud or soil will make a first class road,
if duly mixed with sand, and vice versa.
Our sand banks and flats can be made
into good roads only by being mixed
with the mud or soil. The reason of
this is that the soil will pack under the
wheels and horses feet only when it is
comparatively dry, but the sand will
pack only when it is wet. Hence, the
two together properly mixed, will pack
under the wheels, whether it is wet or
dry, and you have a good surface road
in rains and in drouths. Usually, it
takes about half and half for the first
surface foot of the road bed, sometimes
more and sometimes less, according to
the purity of the sand and mud used.
Sand is better than either gravel or
pounded stone, because it will stay up
on the surface and pack with the soil,
and not sink into the depths below for
instance, the city of Minneapolis The
older parts of it stand on a prairie
plateau that looks much like our own,
but on closer examination will be found
to have sand enough in it to pack when
wet under wheels and hoofs, while it
was thoroughly underdrained by
natural gravel bed. Hence for years
they did all their continuous heavy
hauling of lumber, grain, and other
vehicles without any sort of a pave
ment or even ruts in their streets, while
in the undrained muddy sloughs round
about, team would go in all over, if
not constantly and carefully worked
and prepared In the rainiest weather
the natural streets were only little
disagreeably muddy and sloppy, while
here in Illinois we have seen a two and
even a four horse team hopelessly
mired with an empty wagon on a soil
that would not pack, and we had to
deliver our goods in hand-carts on the
sidewalks. All over Nebraska and
Kansas wherever the prairie soil is
underdrained by gravel-beds, and has
sand enough in it to pack under the
wheels, they have no trouble in making
good roads, even though their soil may
be black and fertile as ours is. Indeed,
in the entire range of what they call
their "dobe" lands, under the range
Of the Rocky Mountains, from North
Dakota down to Texas, and up from
Texas, through the whole length of the
Pacific Coast, they have no difficulty
as far as l have ever seen or heard in
making good roads, wherever the soil
is naturally underdrained and has
sand enough in its surface to pack
when wet under the wheels, as what
they popularity call their "dobe" soils
usually have.
I have noticed these facts for many
years, whether in this State or in other
States, and as a result | have come to
make a good road without proper
drainage. I'd. You can nowhere make
one with pure mud or pure sand. But
they must everywhere be so combined
as to pack under the wheels, whether
wet or dry. If have your sand, you
must cart on your mud, and, if you
have your mud you must cart on your
sand until you get something like a
foot of eolid packed surface, that will
stay where it is put, and let the rain
water that falls on it, or is detained,
right down through it into the drain
age below. Then you will have solid,
even though sloppy roads, whether
wet or dry. But with sand alone or
mud alone this cannot be done, and not
half as easily with gravel or pounded
stone, for your gravel and pounded
stone will not stay and pack with your
soil, but will be forever sinking below
it. If I were to make permanent roads
on all sorts of mud soils in Illinois,
therefore, I should first begin in the
center of the road and lay a first class
drainage pipe right under its center,
Just below the frost line Of the contem-
plated road, with free outlets for water
at each side at all helowest places into
the fields and drainage bitches round
about. If your pipes and outlets in
these low places come above the
natural surface, all the better. After
the pipes are laid, scrape and cart on
and round up your road-bed out of the
dirt at hand, whatever it may be,
making it as high, narrow and we'll
rounded as convenient. Then cart on
sand, the purer the better, but any
sort of sand will do, though it would
4nko mora Of II till vnn find YOUR soil