The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-06-15
IMPORTANCE OF CULVERTS.


This question of culverts is really
quite an important one, since they
bear almost the same relation to
roads that keystones do to arches.
Culverts made by putting together
jointed cement or glazed earthcn-
ware pipes are the most satisfactory,
being easier handled and compar-
atively inexpensive, and when laid
certain distance below the surface
run little or no danger of being
broken. But to obviate this they
should be laid diagonally across the
road, which prevents the weight of
wagons from bearing upon it with
two wheels at once and also gives
them a better fall.
On hills it is advisable to lay
some 8-lnch pipes at reasonable dis
tances apart, dividing up the gut
tiers Tito short runs instead of at
tempting to give the mass of water
free flow down the entire hill.
A short steep hill needs only a
single pipe placed near the foot o;
the hill. These culverts have one
advantage over all others-namely,
a concave bottom, with a smooth
glazed surface, which allows the
water to rush through so freely that
it carries all distractions before it
and permits no rubbish to choke up
the pipes. These requires no fur
Their attention than slight exami
nation every spring to see if the
frost has cracked a joint or the
Ubiquitous country boy has taken it
upon himself to stop up the open
ing by stuffing small stones into it.
When carefully built, stone cul-
verts are not bad, but they are ex-
pensive to make we'll, and as rule
their sides are laid up so carelessly
in dry walls of such small sized
stones that they are liable to up
heave and be thrown down by frost.
Moreover, the fiat stones laid across
the top are often so badly dressed
and fitted together that the gravel
covering them keeps sitting through
the cracks, filling up the culvert
and exposing holes OH top, which
are either chinked up with cobble-
stones or left bare until some horse
gets hurt and a row is made, with
the only result that more earth is
spread over and the same process
Is kept up ad imfnitum.
Left entirely to himself, the ma
tive roadmaster prefers a more
primitive culvert of his own make,
which has the enormous merit in
his eyes of being cheap, quick and
easy of construction. His method,
delightful in its simplicity, consists
in digging a trench across the road
and bridging it over with few
split green chestnut rails cut by the
roadside, which are afterward COW
cred with earth or sod heaped above
the level of the road IN such a man
ner as to make a disagreeable
"break."
Besides it's liability to become
choked and useless, this sort of Gull
vert is particularly Objectionable
because it is always neglected and
forgotten, being left to rot until at
last some horses foot crashes
through it, and the driver may con-
slider himself lucky if the animal es-
capes with nothing worse than a
slight wrench or scratch.
During harvest, when it is almost
impossible to get men to do any
continuous work not connected with
farming, to save time we are some
times obliged to put IN temporary
box culvert, made of pIanks nailed
together like a long narrow box
open at both ends. These culverts
are a slight improvement on the
local one made from chestnut rails,
inasmuch.as, being quite fiat on top,
they do not destroy the roads level
surface, but unless care is taken to
have them made of oaken planks
they rot out even more quickly than
the ers.-Harper's.