Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-08-23

at unpropitious tines as rain or snow.
The water softens the earth, the horses
feet and wagon wheels mix it, and it
soon becomes impossible mud. Final
ly the frost freezes it, and the second
state of the road is worse than the first,
for a time at least Further, if the wa
ter is allowed to course down the mid
die of the road it will wash away the
earth and leave gullies in the surface
that must be laboriously filled up by
the traffic or the hand of man. No
road, however well made otherwise,
can endure if the water collects or re-
mains on it. Prompt and thorough
drainage Is vital essential in all road
construction.
\ perfectly drained road will have
three systems Of drainage, each of
which must receive special attention if
the best results are to be obtained.
This is true whether the trackway be
iron, broken stone, gravel or earth, and
it is emphatically true of earth. These
three systems are underdrainage, side
bitches and surface drainage.
Many If not most country highways
could be considerably improved by
thorough subSrainage. Most roads need
undertakings even though water does
not stand in the side bitches.
The most important object of under
drainage is to lower the water level in
the soil. The action of the sun and the
breeze will finally dry the surface Of
the road but if the foundation is soft
No Re
horses feet make depressions between
the ruts. The first shower fills these
depressions with water, and the road is
soon a mass of mud. A good road can
not be maintained without good foun-
dation, and an undrained soil is poor
foundation. A dry subsoil can support
almost any load. A friend of the writ
er, an intelligent man and close OBJ
server, claims that even in a dry time
the easiest digging on or around a farm
is just under the surface of a road hav-
ing no underdrainage. His theory is
that except in the road vegetation is
continually pumping the water up from
the subsol and giving it out into the
air, while In the road the compact sur
face prevents evaporation Of the water
in the subsoil. Therefore the road
needs undertakings more than the
field.
A second object Of undertakings Is
to dry the ground quickly after a
freeze. When the frost comes out Of
the ground In the spring, it thaws
quite as much from the bottom as from
the top. If the land Is underdrained.
the water when released by thawing
from below will be Immediately car
ried away. This is particularly i'm
portant in road drainage, since the
foundation of the road will then re-
main solid, and the road itself will not
be cut up like untitled roads.
A third and sometimes a very i'm
portant object of subdrainage is to re-
move what may be called the under
flow. In some places where the ground
is comparatively dry when it freezes In
the fall it will be very wet in the
spring when the frost comes out, sur
prisingly so considering the dryness be-
fore freezing. The explanation Is that
after the ground freezes water rises
slowly in the soil by hydrostatlc pres
sure Of the water in higher places, and
II 1t is not drawn Off by underdrainage
1t saturates the subsoil and rises as the
frost goes out, so that ground which
was comparatively dry when it froze
is practically saturated when it thaws.
The underdrainage of a road not only
removes the water, but prevents or
greatly reduces the destructive effect of
frost. Frost is destructive only where
there is moisture. The upheaving ac-
ton of frost is due to presence of wa
ter. Water expands on freezing and
loosens the soil. When thawing takes
place, the ground is left spongy and wet,
and the roads 'break up" If the roads
are kept dry, they will not break up.
Undertakings helps to keep them dry.
1t is the universal observation that
roads in low places which are tiled dry
out sooner than the untitled roads on
the high land. The tiled roads never
get so bad as those not tiled. There is
no way In which road taxes can be
spent to better advantage than in til
ing the roads.