The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-01-11

have made. 1t is dne, hneI line rug
ged face of the overseer was wreathed
in smiles, and his cheeks glowed with
pleasure. Then, as he spoke, his look
became serious. %Ia... 4. ~
"Well, I tell you how it was, Mr..
Spectator. Last fall I took adrive down
to ,Blank"-naming a large town go
miles away and three counties of-"and
7 seen some roads that made me ashamed
of the old mudholes up here, and says
to myself, IF ever I work the roads Of
my district again, I will have good roads
too So asked 'em how they did it,
and, by George, they tell me that they
didn't do nothin but keep the stones
outen the road, keep the sods off, and
open up the bitches 30 as the roads
wouldn't wash. And that's all done
this spring, but I kept on a-doin it, and
though we had the worst washes this
GUNNER ever see, the roads in my dis
trict have been better than they ever
was afore. Next year." he continued,
II mean to tell the town committee that
Twill take mile more Of road, and
don't want no more money than been
gettin." h..
Now, on this little excursion from
home, this honest old farmer had learn
ed the real secret Of road making, and
be had had the sense to apply it when
he resumed work in his district. Water
is at once the most destructive and the
most beneficial force that the road maker
and the road repairer has to contend
with and to count on. If it be harnessed,
80 to speak, it can be made to keep the
roads clean and smooth and hard; If 1t
be uncontrolled, it is sure to wash the
roads into ruts and make them all but
impossible. Drainage is the most essen
tial feature of road, and in most in
stances this is simplicity itself.
In the Spectators experience he has
rarely come across country road maker
who did not believe that the sods taken
out Of the side bitches should be put in
to the road to be ground up into dust by
the wagon wheels, converted into mud
by the rains and finally washed back
into the bitches again. This process of
road repairing does no good at any time,
as the road 30 worked is usually-in.
deed, in nine cases out Of ten-better
when the repairer puts his hurtful hand
upon it than at any other time.
1t is so easy to make good dirt road
and to keep it in order that it seems
ever wonder to the Spectator that in
this country, where the people plume
themselves upon their ingenuity and
adaptability, they should keep on being
stupid in this very important matter OF
road repairing. The Spectator knows
from actual experience that in the aver
age country neighborhood the roads can
be kept in most excellent order ten
months in the year with the money that
is now spent on them. If elementary in
struction in drainage could be given to
the overseers Of the roads, then the
powers of nature, now only destructive,
could be made to do most of the neces-
sary work of road repairing. The spring
rains can be made to do the. work Of
road scrapers, and the summer rains
will more frequently than not suffice to
keep the roads moderately free from
dust.
A good dirt road should have slight
crown, so that the water will drain each
way from the center to the side ditch,
and there should be no intervening strip
of sod between the roadway and the
ditch. The second requirement is most
important, and it is almost universally
disregarded. The sod is tougher than
dirt, and it also becomes higher. The
grass being permitted to grow, its edge
forms a ridge which interrupts the
drainage, and then, when the rainfall
is heavy, there is sure to be gully
above the ditch-a gully which in lit
tie while will extend into the roadway
and make it more or less impossible.
The crown to a dirt road, or to any road
for that matter, should be higher on q
grade or hill than on level. stretch.
The rainfall on hillside runs off with
greater velocity and therefore does more
damage. Therefore it should be diverted
from the surface Of the road even more
quickly at such places than where the
grade is level. These few simple en-
gineering principles, it seems to the
Spectator, could be inculcated and the
rural population relieved Of a very
heavy burden without any cost what
ever in the first instance Outlook.