The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-03-03
CLAY AND SAND.
with Proper Drainage This Combination
Makes n Firm and Durable Road.

Makes Firm and Durable Road.
Hon. II. w. Thornton of Mercer coun.
ty, Ills, is veteran in the war for good
roads. For more than 30 years he has
labored with voice and pen for the i'm.
provement of country highways, and his
wide experience has led him to devise
plan for road work which the builders
of the roads across the prairics, where
material is scarce, will do well to investi-
gate. He says;
From 1857 to 1868, having in charge
tho construction of railroad between
Savannah and Warsaw. Ills, ! had oc
casion TO make many trips between those
points in company with a civil engineer.
The subject of the improvement of the
roads we Travelled was frequently dis
cussed. The distance is about 100 miles
and most of the way near the Mississippi,
many miles being all sand. A few miles
in the vicinity Of Nauvoo stone is abun-
dant, but the greater portion of the dis
tance is pure Illinois soil.
In winter or wet weather the sand
made good road, but in hot, dry wealth
er it became very heavy. When sand
was Incorporated with the soil, as is
often the case between sand drifts and
other localities, there was passably
good road at all seasons Sand in many
localities in combination with clay pre-
pared ''in the long ago" has given man
a foundation for a roadway that is al
ways in repair and always good at no ex-
pense to any one.
In these 30 years of my journeying
over the prairies of Illinois / became
fully convinced that drainage in some
way with TIE use of sand in combination
with the soil of the prairies would tend
very much toward the improvement of
the roads. The clay roadbed we have.
1t is fixture. 1t has come to stay.
With sand it may be utilized in drainage.
Gravel or broken stone is poor substi-
tute for sand to be Incorporated with
the clay roadbed. Except for water the
roads would always be good. Thorough
drainage is therefore the cure.
If sand is most convenient and cheaper
than gravel or broken stone, put down
tiling in the center of the roadbed 81
feet below the surface, the dirt displaced
in tiling is distributed evenly over the
roadbed. first inches next to the tiling
filled with the soil of roadbed to hold
the sand above with which the remaining
feet of the ditch is filed. A coating of
sand or inches in depth and feet in
width is placed on the center of the road,
leaving or 8 feet on either side of this
track for dry weather road.
The theory is that continued rains
would soon put the central track in use
a,,1 30 H.. ..-.1
thereby facilitating drainage of the sur
face water into the sand or gravel over
the tiling, thus securing continued and
permanent drainage This coating of
sand may be repeated so as to be thor
oughly incorporated with the roadbed.
The sand mixed with the soil renders the
roadbed porous in proportion to the
quantity of sand in combination with it.
No material is better than gravel az
broken stone for filling the ditch abo~=
the tile; it drains more readily than
sand and is preferable in all respects ex-
cept to combine with clay to make it
porous. All three are very useful and
necessary in the construction Of good
road. Availability and cost of material
decide which shall be used in different
localities.
A we'll drained roadbed by this method
requires a less quantity of at least one
half of sand and gravel or broken stone
than any method heretofore presented to
the public. 1t will take II to 9 yards of
the above to fill the ditch per rod above
the tiling, and about the same amount
as coating ON the central track.-Good
Roads.