The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-05-15
ROAD GRADER AT WORK.


earth roads, that county boards be inn
pressed with the need of proper
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 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 eff
fects and remedy all damage as quickly
as possible. The simple implements
which have been found to be of great
est assistance in this work are the
pillow, the drag scraper, the wheel scrap
er. the road grader and the split log
drag.
With sandy soil and subsoil of
clay or clay and gravel. deep blowing,
SO as to raise and mix the clay with
the surface soil and sand, will prove
beneficial The combination forms a
sand-clay road at trifiing expense.
On the other hand, If the road be en-
tirely of sand mistake will be made
If 1t is plowed unless clay can be add
ed. Such blowing would merely deep
en- 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 pillow and what not to
piow. but how and when to plow. If
the road Is of the kind which, accord
ing to the above instructions, 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 forming a crown. Results
from such blowing are greatest in the
spring or early summer.
In bitches pillow can be used to good
advantage; but should be followed by a
scraper or grader. To make wide. deep
bitches nothing better than the ordi-
nary drag scraper has yet been de-
vised. For hauls under hundred feet
or in making fills it is especially
serviceable. 1t is a mistake, however,
to attempt to handle long haul mate
rial with this scraper. as the wheel
scraper is better adapted to such work
For hauls of more than 800 feet a
wagon should be used.
The machine most generally used in
road work is the grader or road ma
chine. This machine is especially USE
full in smoothing and browning the
road and In opening bitches. A clay
subsoil under a thin coating of soil
should not be disturbed with a grader.
1t Is also mistake to use grader
indiscriminately and to pull material
from bitches upon a 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. 1t is important
In using grader to avoid building up
the road too much at one time. A road
gradually built up by frequent use of
the grader will last better than If COM
pleted at one operation.
The foreman frequently thinks his
road must be high In the first in.
stance. He piles up material from
ten 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 thin layers.
each layer well puddled and firmly
packed by roller or traffic before the
next Is added. A common mistake is
to crown too high with the road ma
chine on narrow road.
The split log drag should be used
to ill in, ruts and smooth the road
when not too badly washed. The drag
possesses great merit and is so simple
In construction and operation that
every farmer should have one