Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-03-31
GOOD EARTH ROADS.
Government Officials Tell How They
Nav BE Built and Maintained.

May Be Built and Maintained.
While American road builders are as
capable of constructing good roads as
those of any country OF the old world,
they have not been as loyalty support
ed as the men Of those countries In
maintaining the highways after COM
pletion, and 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 a road
built, but they strenuously object when
asked to provide funds to rebuild the
|s5ad 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 county boards be
impressed 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 ef-
fects and remedy all damage as quick
ly as possible. The simple imple-
ments 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 a sandy soil and a subsoll of
clay, or clay and gravel, deep plowing
so as to raise and mix the clay with
the surface soil and sand will prove
beneficial. The combination forms
sand clay road at trifing expense
On the other hand, If the road be en-
tirely Of sand a mistake will be made
if it is plowed unless clay can be add
ed. Such plowing 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, plow-
ing should not be resorted to, as it
would result in q clay surface rather
than one of sand or gravel. road
foreman must know not only what to
plow and what not to plow, but how
and when to plow. II the road Is OF
the kind which according to the above
instructions should be plowed over it's
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 plow can be used to good
advantage, but should be followed by
a scIaper or grader. To make wide,
deep bitches nothing better than the
or binary drag scraper has yet been de-
vised. For hauls under 100 feet or in
making fills" it is especially service
able. 1t is a mistake, however, to
attempt to handle long haul material
with this scraper, as the wheel scraper
is better adapted to such work. For
hauls of more than 500 feet, 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 crowning the road
and in opening bitches. A clay sub
soil under a thin coating of soil should
not be disturbed with a grader. 1t is
also a mistake to use a grader indis-
criminately and to pull materially 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 mud
holes a certainty. 1t is important in
using a 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 instance. He piles
up material from ten inches to foot
in depth only to learn, with the arrival
of the first rain, that he has furnished
the material for as many inches or
mud. All material should be brought
up in thin layers, each layer well pud-
died 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.
The split-log drag should be used to
fill in ruts and smooth the road when
not too badly washed. The drag pos
sesses great merit and is so simple in
construction and operation that every
farmer should have one. special ar
ticle will be published later telling
how to make and use the drag.