Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-05

ATOLlS.
 sized hill composed almost entirely of gravel, which was used for road build- ing in several directions. The owner of the hill was selling the gravel at price low enough to make it an induce. ment for the road commissioners to pur- chase it and haul it onto the roads. The said commissioners did not attempt to gravel the road for its whole width, but made the graveled driveway about 12 feet wide. As they had good founda- tion naturally, and as the road was fianked by good ditches on each side, the gravel became an almost impervious cap to the road, turning the water cas- lily in both directions, for it had in it small percentage of soil and had been rolled hard. The farmers in the vicinity were very proud of their work, and Q number of them had subscribed $50 each in addition to thsilE road tax tp hlelp push the work along. The road shortened the distance to town very materially and reduced the cost of hauling all produce, for 1t was only within recent years that the great deposit of gravel was touched
 There are in the middle and western states immense quantities of such gray el. Usually the soil over those depos- its is of no great value for agricultural purposes, as the porous condition of the substrata makes it difficult to retain enough moisture in the soil for plant needs. These deposits should there- fore be used for the construction of roads where such improvements are needed. Where it is possible topurchase such gravel at low price it will pay a township much better to use the gravel in the construction of roads than to con- tinue to remake the roads with dirt sur face each year.
 The state with deep alluvial soil, such as Illinois and Iowa, have very bad roads. A government report says that on this account Illinois has the worst roads of any state in the union. In some sections there are no gravel deposits and gravel must be hauled in over the railroads. In such cases it becomes nec- essary to make the graveled roadbed as narrow as possible. This can be ac- complished by having the gravel road bed just wide enough for use by the wheels of an ordinary carriage or wag- on and have the graveled strip paral- leed by an earth roadbed. This latter arrangement is seen in certain parts of Illinois. The earth roadway gives room for turning out when two teams meet on the graveled strip. and in some parts of the summer the dirt road is preferred for use by the drivers of light wagons.
 It is useless to attempt to build a gravel or any other kind of road till pro- vision has been made for taking of the water as fast as it falls and keeping it from accommodating. says the Ohio Farm CT. If the ditches on the sides of the road are allowed to become clogged up. causing the water fin the ditches to rise to near the surface of the road. the whole foundation is softened and the gravel either sinks into the soft mud be- low or is washed out of position by cur rents of water. This is the reason why some gravel when put on roads has dis appeared in a year or two.
 The drainage of the road must be provided for and then the dirt founda- ton should be packed hard by using a steam roller. On the top of this foundation. gravel to the depth of four inches should be put on and rolled till 1t is not more than three inches m thickness. On top of this should be put another four inches and that. too, should be rolled hard. making a bed six inches in thickness This plan of course must be modified to suit cir cumstanees. as there are roads with naturally such good foundation that far less than this amount of gravel is required to make a satisfactory sur face.