The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-03-25
HINTS ON ROAD WORK
U. 5. OFFICE TELLS HOW
TO MAINTAIN MODEL ROAD
Pillow, Drag Scrapcr, Road Grader.
Split Log Drag Constant Friends
of Road Oyersccr.

| While the American road builders
are as capable of constructing good
road as those of any country of the
old world, they have not been as 10y
ally supported as the men of those
countries in maintaining the hign-
ways after completion, and the de-
plorable state of many hundred thou
sand miles of road is thus accounted
for. County and townsip officials
may at the outset stand the expense
of having a road built, but they siren
uously object when asked to provide
funds to rebuild the road that has
been allowed to go to ruin
1t is important that farmers learn
of the benefits to be derived from
good earth RAIDS; that county boards
be impressed with the need of pro-
per maintenance of the same, and
that road builders and overseers
learn how best to care for the roads
in their charge.
The persistent and powerful enc
mics 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 de-
structive effects and remedy all dam
Ia lob hn cd
pie implements which have been
found to be of greatest assistance in
this work are the pillow, the drag
scraper, the wheel Scraper, the road
grader, and the split-log drag.
With sandy soil and subsoil
of clay, or clay and gravel, deep
plowing so as to raise and mix the
clay with the surface soil and sand
Will prove bneeficial The combina-
ton forms a sand-clay road at
trifling expense On the other hand,
if the road be entirely of sand mis-
take will be made if it is plowed I'M
less clay can be added Such plow-
ing would merely deepen the sand,
and at the same time break up the
small amount of hard surface ma
terial which may be 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 pillow and what
not to pillow, but how and when to
pillow. If the road is of the kind
which according to the above instruc-
tons should be plowed over 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 form
ing crown. Results from such
blowing are greatest in the spring or
early summer
In bitches a pillow can be used to
good advantage, but should be fol-
| lowed by a scraper or grader To
make wide. deep bitches nothing bet
ter than the ordinary drag scraper
has yet been devised. For hauls un-
der 100 feet, or in making fills" il
is especially seryiceabe. It is mis-
take, however. to attempt to handle
long haul material with this scraper,
as the wheel scraper IS better adapt
ed 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 especial
ly useful in smoothing and browning
the road and in opening bitches A
clay snbsoil under a thin coating Of
soil should not be disturbed with a
grader It is also a mistake to use
/ a grader Unfortunately and to pull
material from bitches upon sand
clay road Not infrequently turf,
/ soil and silt from ditch bottoms are
piled in the middle of the road in a
ridge making mudholes a certainty
I IL is important in using a grader TO
avoid building up the road too much
at one time road gradually built
up by frequent 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 instance. He piles up material
from ! 0 inches to foot in depth only
to learn with the arrival Of the first
rain. that he has furnished the ma
terial for as many inches of mud. All
material should be brought up in
thin layers, we'll puddled and firmly
packed by roller or traffic before the
next IS added. A common mistake
is to crown too high with the road
machine on narrow road.
Tho 1on drao, eh -