Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1908-04-02
SOME HINTS ON
ROAD BUILDING
u. S. Public Road Office Makes Sug-
geStIOns on Making Model
Earth Roads.

road as those of any country of the
old world, they have not been as
loyalty supported as the men of
those countries in maintaining the
highways after completion, and the
deplora able state of many hundred
thousand miles of road is thus ac-
counted for. County and township
officials may at the outset stand
the expense of having a road built,
but they have strcnuously object
when asked to provide funds to re-
build 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 roads; that the county
boards be impressed with the need
of a proper nam tainance of the
same, and that road builders and
oversccrs learn how best to care
for the roads in their charge.
The persistent and powerful en-
emics of earth roads are water and
narrow tires, and the constant eff
fort of the men in char gc of the
road should be to guard against
their destructive effects and remedy
all damage as quickly as possible.
The simple implements which
have been found to be of greatest
assistance in this work are the
DOW, tbs dcas SRA per, the wheel
scraper, the road grader and the
split-log drag.
With sandy soil and clay SUBJ
oil, or clay and gravel, deep wv
ng SO as to raise and mix the clay
with the surface soil and sand will
prove beneficial. The combination
forms sand-clay road at a trifling
expense. On the other hand if the
road be entirely of sand it will be
a mistake If it is plowed unless
clay can be added. Such blowing
would merely deepen the sa nd, and
at the same time break up the
small amount of hard Surface ma
teriai which may have formed. II
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 rath-
or 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. II
the road is of the kind which ac-
cording to the above instructions
should be plowed over it's whole
width, the best method is to run the
first fuirow 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 fol-
lowed by scraper OF grader. To
make wide deep bitches 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 serviceable.
1t is a mistake, however, to at
tempt to handle long hauls with
this scrsper, as the wheel scraper
is far better adapted to such work.
For hauls of more than 500 feet a
agou should be used.
The machine most generally used
10. road work is the grader, or road
machine. This machine is especi-
allysueful in smoothing and crown
ing the road and in opening ditch
es- A clay subsoil under a thin
coating OF soil should not be dis
turbed with grader. 1t is also a
mistake to use a grader indiscrim-
insteiy and to pull material from
bitches upon sand-clsy road. No
infrequently turf, soil and silt from
ditch bottoms are piled in the mid
die of the road in a ridge, max.
ing mudholes a certainty. 1t is
important in using grader t
avoid building up the road too
much at one time. A road grad
ually built up by frequent use of tn,
grader will bstter than if com
pie ed at en-. operation. The fore
man frequently thinks his roat
must be high in the FIRST instance
He piles up material from 10 inch
es to foot in depth only to learn
with the arrival OF the first rain
that he has furnished material 70
sa many inches of mud. All ma
terial should be brought up in thii
layers, each layer we'll puddled ant
firmly packed by roller or trsffi
before th> next is added. A com
mon mistake is to crown too hig
with the road machine on Mario,
road.