Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-04-24
HINTS ON ROAD WORK.
U. S. Office of Public Roads Tells
How to Make and Maintain a
Model Earth Road.
GIVES PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
TO ROAD OvERSEERS AND
FARMERS.

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 supported
as the men of those countries in main
tanning the highways after completion,
and the deplorable state of many hum
dred thousand miles of road is thus ac-
counted for, County and township of
ficials may at the outset stand the ex-
pense Of having road built. but they
strenuously object when asked to pro-
vide 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 roads; that county boards be im-
pressed with the need of proper main
tenance 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 any damage as quickly as
possible. The simple implements which
have been found to be of greatest as
sistance in this work are the plow, 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
beneficial. The combination forms a
sand-clay road at a trifiing expense.
On the other hand, if the road be en-
tirely Of sand mistake will be made
If it is plowed unless clay can be added.
Such plowing would merely deepen 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 a
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. If the road
is of the kind which according to the
above instructions should be plowed
over its whole width. .lthe 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 a plow can be used to
good advantage. and should be followed
by a scraper or grader. To make wide,
deep bitches nothing better than the
ordinary drag scraper has yet been de-
vised. For hauls under 100 feet, or in
making "fills," it is especially SER
viceable. 1t is 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 800 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 subsoil
under thin coating of soil should not
be disturbed with grader. 1t is also
mistake to use a grader indiscrimi-
nately and to pull material from bitches
upon sand-clay road. Not infre.
quently turf, soil and silt from ditch
bottoms are piled in the middle of the
road in q ridge, making mudholes a Ger.
tainty. 1t is important in using 9
grader to avoid building up the roac
too much at one time. A road gradu
ally 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 higl
in the first instance. He piles up ma
terial from ten inches to a foot ir
depth only to learn, with the arrival Of
the first rain. that he has furnished
the material for as many inches o.
mud. All material should be brought
up in thin layers, each layer we'll 2ud
died and firmly packed by roller o.
traffic before the next is added. A
common mistake is to crown too higl
with the road machine on a narrow
road.