Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1893-02-15
Farm Notes.
Country Roads.

| OcSl treatment OF ulrt and 8raNel
roads are of much practical service.
Isaac b. Potter in Good Roads for
October has some suggestions of
value on this point.
In the construction of gravel
road it will be necessary in most
cases to eXcavate to depth of about
eight inches for the full width of the
proposed roadway, giving each side
of your excavation a nearly vertical
slant, so that it will hold the gravel
and prevent caving and sloughing
off at the sides. The bottom of this
excavation should be given gradual
slope each way from the center out
ward to correspond with the outline
adopted for the finished roadway.
When the excavation is done it will
be better and will certainly insure a
more permanent road if the sub
grade or bottom of the excavation
can be rolled with a roller of from
three to five tons in weight. Rolling
is not, however, really essential to
the construction of a good gravel
road, where the sub-soil is firm and
likely to maintain its condition of
hardness. A layer of say five inches
of good gravel (not necessarily the
best; unscreened gravel, if of fair
quality, may be used for this bottom
layer may now be put in and ralied
into an even layer over the entire
b-grade, after which this gravel
layer may be subjected to the wheels
of passing traffic till it becomes fairly
compact. While this process is 60
ing on it will be necessary to keep
the ruts and uneven depressions
filled as fast as they are formed. In
ordinary cases one man will be sutfi-
cient to care for 1000 to | 800 feet
of road, say II feet wide, during this
process of compacting the top sur
face
If you use a roller, remember that
the sides of the roads should have
your first attention, and that the
work of compacting the layers of
gravel should proceed from each side
towards the center so as to counter
act the tendency of the gravel to
work out from the center towards
the sides.
1t is best to remember that in
every road dryness and hardness
generally go together; that the arti
fetal layer of six or eight or more in
ches in thickness is put on, not to
sustain the loaded wagons, but
rather to endure the wear and to
preserve uniformity of surface. The
underlying earth is the real sustain
ing foundation, and if this is soft or
insecure in any marked degree, both
the road surface and the traffic will
suffer, for these are both held and
sustained by the earth.
This under layer should when well
compacted be covered by good gravel
binding material being necessary in
cases where the gravel will not com
pact readily in its natural condition.
But it is highly important that all
earthly materials be excluded from
the clean gravel except so far as may
be necessary to insure the compact
ing of the surface.
1t is well to remember that the
final rolling cannot be too well done
and that a heavy roller should be
used for the finishing work if possible
No road can be properly main
tanned except by a system of CON
stant repair, or rather that continu-
Gus attention which looks to the re
pair of all defects in the surface as
fast as they appear. No greater
fallacy was ever promulgated than
that involved in the system of an
nual repairs " which has turned out
to be a kind of shiftless, make be
lieve tinkering that takes hold of the
road in the dry season when it is il
fairly good condition, and fills it with
great heaps of soft dirt, stones, SOC
and refuse, making it nearly as bao
as when softened by the spring rains.
A good road surface will wear out 10y
the action of travel. 1t is quite as
perishable as the wagons we ride and
the shoes we wear, and it would be
as sensible to adopt system of AN
nual repair of shoes and wagons
and to inaupurate an annual horse