The Newtown bee., 1901-05-31

oAA oAAS JO1' AAS 6Ao'SA Oi o1C P1 CS0u- ing day will now be subjected to heavy loads and if the dump carts have req sonably wide tires the close of the days work will see the wheel track of the first days carting as hard as macadam. Of course this depends somewhat on the gravel. Builders of macadam road have found that stone of one size will not make solid road. They use coarse stone at the bottom, then finer and top off with fine stone and unless they have very fine stone sprinkling of loam to knit the top. The gravel road builder must remember this: gray el with fair supply of cobble stones for the bottom and some loam to knit and pack the whole is the ideal gravel for road. When there is not enough loam in the gravel, enough must be sprinkled on to make it pack.
 No matter how much care is taken in the raking. after two or three days, it will be found that quite little gravel has been thrown up outside the wheel track. This should be shoveled, not into the wheel track to crush out again, but, upon the middle of the road, where everybody that comes along will say it is too high already. And it will be too high. If a road roller weighing ten tons were being used that would be one thing, but I am describing the building of road with ordinary farm appliances. Use ] must work down the road and if built in the fall it should be raked down little in the spring. There may be slight depressions to fill, and cobbles not found in the first raking will crop out.
 When there are no depressions to fill l like this work to be done by two men, with garden rakes, each raking 1 from the wheel track opposite to where he stands toward the center and throw ing out any cobbles he may find. If more double than single teams travelled a road it might not be necessary. Such a road will need raking to remove small stone that work out several times the first summer to make it perfect, but after that it will be a speedway for horsemen or bicycles. Road that built last fall is in that condition the first of May.
 | Where there is in the spring deep mud, all sorts of stones, the largest first, should be thrown or carted in until they come to the top and gravel put on as before described. In some cases it is necessary to build as you go, instead of laying out days work and beginning at the farthest point, but am firmly convinced that it is not only cheaper to put the stones into the mud and bed them by driving over but better in the end than digging out as they do to build macadam road and filling with stones. Don't be afraid that frost will "throw the stones out. J If the frost threw out stones there would be thousands of acres in Con. necticut where you couldn't see the ground. Any farmer knows that if he had stone in his meadow or blow field, anywhere from the size of a water-pail to the size of barrel, he might as we'll wait for an earthquake to throw it out as the frost. Ifa road
 way is left to be a watercourse the stones will "come up" and long usage may wear road down to stone, but before that happens it will need sur facing to prevent it's being so low as tc be watercourse.
 | l would not advise anyone that haG never put load of gravel on road tc spend thousand dollars as an expert ment, but with few trials, a mar with brains enough to run farm car learn, if he can get the gravel without too much carting to make better an6 cheaper road in the long run than car be made in any other way, except where the soil along the highway makes Ia suitable roadbed. In that case it is only necessary to raise the road out o1 the way of water, the travelled path ] mean, not the shoulders" and re- member that it is cheaper to run water under a road than over it, even if it goes straight across.
 It must be understood that the fore going is concerning single track county road. If wide road is needed the single track may be built anC gravel dumped each side. This will necessitate another layer in the centre to keep of the water and the cost will be four times the cost of a single track while it will never be as satisfactory as it will be apt to wear into ruts and need frequent repairs. Where the ordinary travel uses more than a single track and needs more, I recom- mend road roller kept in use with a watering cart until the road is solid but it must be understood that $1.OO per rod will not build such a road.
 Stevenson, Conn.,, May, 1901.
 Editor BEE: II send you paper as suggested. The road described as sin gle track, is all that is needed to drive over. The only disadvantage in turn ing out to pass team is the contrast, as against all bad in an ordinary road. One does not usually turn out oftener than once mile on country road, and the expense of constructing a road, all gravel or all macadam, is four times as great where the road is wide enough to turn out the whole length, as when only a driving track is made l believe it is not only practical but economical to build solid driving track, free from mud and water at all seasons, on our ordinary thorough fa raS used hu everxh0dy like tho road