Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-03-26
HINTS ON ROAD WORK.
q. y. ONCE of PulIc Roads Tells How
to Wake and Maintain Model Earth
Road.
sises Practical suggestions
The Pioyx, the Drag scraper. the Read
Grader, and THE split s.0g Esrag are
the constant friend of the road
0verseeP.

While American road builders are as cap
able Of constructing good roads as those Of
any county Of the old world. they haYe
not been as Loyalty supported as the men
OF those countries in maintaining the high
ways after completion, aud the deplorable
state Of many hundred thousand miles Of
road is thus accounted for County and
township officials may at the outset stand
the expense of having road built, but they
stFenuousy object when asked to proyids
funds to rebuild the road that has been al
lowed to 60 to ruin
Is is important that farmers learn of the
benefits TO &c derived from good earth roads
that county boards be impressed with the
need Of a proper maintenace Of the same,
and that road builders and overseers learn
how best to care for the roads in their
charge.
The persistent and powerful enemies of
earth roads are water and narrow tires, and
the constant effort of the men in charge of
the roads should be to guard against their
destructive effects and remedy all damage
as quickly as possible. The simple imple-
ments which haYe to be of greatest assis-
tapce in this work are the plow, the drag
scraper, the wheel scraper, the road grader,
and the split-log drag.
With sandy soil and a subsoil of clay,
or clay and gravel, deep plowing so as to
raise and mix the clay with the surface soil
aud sand will prove beneficial. The COM.
bination forms a sand-clay road at trifiag
expense. On the other haud, If the road
be entirely of sand mistake will be made
if it is plowed unless clay can be added.
Such plo8ing would merely deepen the
the sand, and at the same time break up
the small amount of hard surface material
which may have formed. If the subsoil is
CLAY and the surface scant IN sand or gravel,
blowing should not be resorted to, as it
would result in clay surface rather than
one of sand or gravel. A road foreman
must know not only what to plow and
what not to plow, but how and when to
plow II she road is of the kind which ac-
eoIdiDg to the above instructions should
be ploged oyer its whole width, the best
method is to run the first furrow in the
middle Of the road and work out to the
sides, thus forming crown. Results from
such blowing are greatest il the spring
or early summer.
In bitches plow can be used to good ad-
vantage, but should be followed by scraper
or grader. To make wide, deep ditohes
nothing better than the ordinary drag scrap
er has yet been devised. For hauls under
100 feet, or in making fills" it is espec-
tally seryiceable. 1t is mistake, how
ever, to attempt to handle long haul ma
terial with this soraper, as the wheel scraper
is better adapted to such work. For hauls
of more than 500 feet, a wagon should be
used.
The machine most generally used in road
work is the grader, or road machine. This
machine is especially useful in smoothing
and crowning the road and in opening ditch-
es. A clay subsoil under thin coating of
soil should not be disturbed with grader.
It is also a mistake TO use grader lndiscTim
inately aud to pull material from bitches
upon sand-clay road. Not infrequently
turf, soil and silb from ditch bottoms are
piled in the middle Of the road in ridge,
making mudholes certainty 1t is inn
portant in using grader to AVOID building
up the road TOO much at one time. road
gradually built up by frequens use of the
grader will last better than if completed at
one operation. The foreman frequently
thinks his road must be high in the first in
stance. He piles up material 10 inches TO a
foot in depth only to learn, with the arrival
OF the first rain, that he has furnished the
material for as many inches Of mud. All
material should be brought up in shin lay
ers each layer well puddled and firmly
packed by roller or traffic before the next
is added common mistake is TO crown
too high with the road machineon a narrow
road
The spills log drag should be used to fill
in ruts and smooth the road when too badly
washed The drag possesses great merit
and is so simple in construction and opera
tion that every farmer should have one. A
special article will be published later tel
ling how to make and use the drag,
Seed Potatoes.
| will have four car leads strictly
first class Name grawu seed potatoes w II
be here by March I8sh all leading varieties