The Baraboo news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1884-1911, 1906-08-29
the BEST DIRT ROAD.
How First.cIass Clay Roads
are Made cheaply and
Easily.

county about six and a half miles
south of the county seat an enter
prising road overseer, Mr.. Chas. w
Gibson by name, got tired of :
three-qusrter mile stretch of baG
clay road in his district and fixed il
up at cost of twenty-four dollars
so that it is the best dirt road in
the state.
Before it was made over this road
was like most other dirt roads low.
|er than the ground alongside of it
so that the water couldn't get out
OF It in any way but by evapora-
ting. The ground was low so the
evaporating was slow process, and
teams had plenty of chance to work
the road into an impossible bed of
puddled clay of about the right
consistency to run through a brick
machine to make brick, but pretty
poor stuff to travel through and
through is literally the word. When
the water finally dried up the Jumps
baked to a brick like hardness which
made the road extremely uneven
and hard to travel over until they
were beaten down by the travel to
form a two inch layer of fine dirt.
But all this is changed. Now the
road is never muddy in rainy wealth
er and there is almost no dust in
dry weather, and better still the
road is in condition so that it can
be kept in this desirable dustless
and mudless state for an annual
cost of only three to five dellars per
mile.
All this sounds like a difficult
thing to do but it was simple as
could be. Mr.. Gibson cut out the
brush along his road, plowed the
sides, turned the dirt in toward the
center with a road grader and made
a good rounded grade of such a
shape that the water readily found
its way to the bitches. So far he
did just like any other road over
seer does with his road machine.
But Mr.. Gibson went farther. He
took forks and threw the sods out
side the bitches and narrowed the
soft newly made grade to settle il
and make it even. Then after the
first rain he went over it with a
King split-log road drag to fill nr
the ruts which the travel had made
in the still loose dirt of the grade.
He repeated the dragging after
each subsequent rain and after a
few such treatments had a road on
which a heavily loaded wagon made
hardly any impression even right
after rain when most clay roads
would be all mud.
This road drag was made for the
town by the local blacksmith for
about five dollars. Tt consisted Of
an eight-inch log split into two
pieces. These pieces were set uI
with the fiat faces forward and con
nected with wooden braces to hold
them about thirty inches apart,
For about half its length the front
log was shod along the lower side OF
the face with steel and provided
with chain to draw the apparatus
by. A team was hooked on the
chain in such a manner that as the
drag was pulled along it lay at an
angle with the road and worked a
little of the dirt toward the center
to fill the ruts.
By going over the roads after
every rain q little soft puddled clay
was dragged toward the center fill
ing the ruts and keeping up the
good rounded shape of the grade sc
that water ran off readily. This
|puddled clay was packed into the
ruts by the travel and dried hard
as brick so that it became steadily
harder for wheels to cut any rnts in
it, thus it came about also that the
road was not cut up into big clods
which could dry and be pounded
into dust and so the road is nearly
dustless in dry weather.
This simple operation can be per
formed after every rain on any clay
road tha is slightly rounded up, at
cost of only three TO five dollars
a mile per year. It is done for this
cost on mile after mile of Iowa
roads. The principle of the opera
firm is that IL is road maintenance