Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-09-15
EXPERIMENTAL ROAD BUILDING
Agricultural College Adds = New
Course of instruction.

<AuSS, sept 10.--lue dBTlCuIturdI Oe-s
partment OF the Iowa State College has
recently added a new course of in
struction which is of far reaching inns
portance to the people Of this state. 1t
is practical course OF study and ex-
periments in roadmaking. In regard to
what is being done there Professor
Curtiss, director Of the experiment sta
ton, has the following to say:
Hon. p. G. Harrison, road expert of
the United States department. of agri-
culture, has been delivering course of
lectures to the agricultural students at
the college. Mr.. Harrison has been de-
tailed for special work here for the pur-
pose of giving instruction in scientific
and practical road making, and he will
return for future work next season.
Practical demonstrations in road
making have been given and samples
have been constructed and surfaced
with gravel, steel track and crude OIL
The practice of using crude oil in road
making is practically new, but the few
experiments that have been made are
quite encouraging. Maj. Meigs, United
States civil engineer stationed at Keo-
kuk, Ia, estimates that the cost of sat-
urating the surface soil OF one mile of
road twelve feet wide to be about s150,
and it is the opinion of the best author
tiles on road making that the surface
soil treated in this way will become
compact and impervious to water and
consequently less affected by the rainy
season and heavy hauling.
The sample of oil road that has been
made on the college farm is in very
promising condition at present and has
withstood the showers thus far with
good results. A complete demonstra-
ton on it's merits, however, can not be
made with less than six months or a
years trial. When MIR. Harrison re-
turns next year arrangements will
probably be made for making samples
lof macadam roads. Stone surface
roads are regarded too expensive to be
| within reach of the average farming
communities of Iowa under present
conditions, but some cities in the state
have already taken up the work and
macadamized the principal thorough
| fares leading into the city and the re-
/ suits have been highly satisfactory and
lthese cities and others are arranging
| to extend the work. Maquoketa is one
1 of the smaller towns that has made
progress in this line and they are plan
ming to hold road convention and dis
cuss further improvements in the near
future.
1 The work that has been taken up al
the agricultural college will be of fan
reaching value, for the reason that the
most urgent need in road improvement
4 at the present time is educated, com
petent men to supervise the work. Oul
present system of expending road take:
lis exceedingly wasteful; the same
amount of money expended under the
/ direction of competent road engineer
would accomplish from two to fou
ltimes the benefit and insure a vast ant
!. permanent improvement in all of ou
lcountry roads, and the same applies t,
. much OF the road work that is done II
cities and smaller towns. The objec
of giving this instruction to the classe
? of the agricultural college is to furnis
: educated young men for various com
lmunities of the state who understan
: the scientific principles in road maxim
| in the most economical and practice
o way under the conditions prevailing i
8 various sections where the require
S lments be for ordinary roads or for ma
e cadamizing and graveling. Special al
: tention in this work is given to roa
drainage, because it is recognized tina
Q is a thorough and complete system c
$ drainage that will remove all surfac
: water and insure dry subsoil.