Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-10-31
puRAsILITY or ROADS.
Olnders Ia the Best Material for smooth
Carriage Drive,


Carriage Drive,
With about 10 inches of rainfall IN
six weeks, we have all had good OPP
portunity to observe some facts in re-
gard to the durability of roads and car
riage drives. In a somewhat billy coun-
try almost all the houses are upon an
elevation, with carriage drive rising
more or less abruptly from the street,
and 1t is no small annoyance to havo
these drives quilted and washed oUt,
especially If it happens in a very busy
time in midsummer.
Where it can be obtained the very
best material for constructing a car
riage drive is cinders, made by burn
ing soft Goals If these are put on sufli-
ciently deep so as TO hold or take up an
ordinary heavy rain, and there is an
outlet for the water below, there will
be very little washing away of the sur
face of the drive. The very worst mode
of constructing carriage drive is that
usually practiced and which was fool
ish enough to adopt good many years
ago; it is that of digging IA deep trench
the width of the carriage drive and fill
ing it promiscuousy with stones of all
sizes. then covering with gravel.
A drive may have an underdrain and
still not be able to take care of the
water as fast as it comes in a heavy
shower. More or less refuse and Iinc
earth is carried onto the drive in the
way of mud from the street and this
fills up the interstices while the gravel
fills those between the stones. If the
mud brought upon the driveway is of
a clay nature the drive in time becomes
impervious to the rapid seepage of the
water and the result is the water
forms a stream on top of the ground,
channeling and cutting away all the
fine gravel upon the top of the stones
and leaving it in a bad condition. lno-
tice that the railroad which passes
through my farm has in recent years
been ballasted almost entirely with
cinders in place of gravel. More than
foot of cinders is used beneath the tles
and the result is that no matter how
heavy the rain the cinders take all that
falls and part of it at their leisure.
The same would be true of a driveway
filled to the depth of Is inches with
cinders. though of course more or less
clay would be deposited on such a
drive that does not find its way on
railroad track.
When it is impossible to procure cIn-
ders in quantities sufficient to make
driveway and it seems desirable to use
stone, the excavation should be made
two feet or more deep, with the largest
stones III the bottom, gradually using
smaller stones until near the surface
they should not be bigger than apples
or hen eggs.
If the stones are selected in this way
and carefully placed, the big ones will
never come to the surface to bump a
wheel and the gravel will never work
down among the larger stones to OBJ
Struct the passage of the water. The
bottom of the excavation should slope
both ways to the center with a dram
only laid foot or two below the sur
face along the center line. Then If the
surface is bailasted with clean good
gravel the drive will take all the water
that falls as fast as il falls and there
will be no surfacewashing, The best
drives in cemeteries and public grounds
ire made in this way with the addition
Of Il stone or brick gutter on both or
either sides. This of course makes it
more expensive and cannot be pTacticed |
by the ordinary owner OF a home. If !
it is not possible to make the whole |
driveway as thoroughly as have midi
Gated, then the steepest slope should |
be treated in this way, carrying the
porous material sufficiently far above
The steep incline 10 catch and absorb |
he water that comes from above.-L. |
B. Pierce in Ohio Farmer