The Springdale news., 1908-02-07
THE MAINTENANCE
OF EARTH ROADS.

i1Hdt 9iA#ft# di Hit#t> ttl fUi 3ta~ iEa= tafeS af road building and nam tenaHee, which will be published rom time to time Our ~uh- scrIbers are urged to give this matter careful consideration and are requested to forward ta this Office tof transmission t0 tbe Of fee of Public Roads any praeti- aIquestion which they desire answered relating to road eoa- Struetion and maintenaaee. Questions and answers will be published by this paper at suit- able intervals.
 Ne may recognize the FaIue q hard and durable roads In all parts of the country, but still the fact remains that for Il long time to come the majority of the roads will be composed of cart ur- thermore, in about nlnc months out of tie year, the earth road, If properly cared for, k reason ablg satisfactory For many az rieutturai districts, + is the only road at present available. Hence, these communities should set themselves seriously 10 work to learn tEe best methods of maintaining earth roads and of getting the maximum service from them Prosperity comes to the country to a great extent through the prosperity ot tt1s farmers This fact strongly sug- eests the importance of giving the earth road every possible eare and attention in it's location drainage, construction and nain- tenaaee.
 An earth road composed of water holding soil should be=ex- posed to the sun and air as freely as possible, as comparison be- tween the shaded and sunny DOT tions of such road will easily indicate. ThiS should be ae- #eonplished by clearing snffi- Heient amount of trees and under growth away from tile road. It must be remembered, however. that sandy and gravelly roads re- qaire moisture, and in these cases some shade should be retalned
 Furthermore, trees are bcnetI- eia1 along river banks and OH steep grades subject to washing.
 Drainage is one of the most important points to consider ia connection with an earth road. The ma lority of earth roads in all mountainous and hilly dis trfctS have too much drainage. Occasionally d road will be found with live dltcheS, three in the middle made by horses hoefs and by wheels of the vehicles, and two on the sides. All we'll construct ed earth roads are supposed to have no more than two ditches. ole on each side of the travelled roadway. Keep the water out of the middle of the road by giving II q crown or elevation III the center of : inches above the top of the inner slope of the ditch for 20-foot road. and where the h1lls are d little steep make the crown 10inehes. With q crown ot about inch to the loot from the center to the sides. the ditches which are often built across the road on steep grades to defect the water will lot be needed. Instead ol carrying water across the road in open i ditehes, tile CT concrete drains should, II possible, be provided. :. They should have sufficient ca paeity and fall to carry the max mum amount of water that IS eX- peeted to flow through them at any one time. The capacity Is increased in proportion to the fall or grade; for instance, 12 Inch pipe laid on q one per cent grade will carry 500 gallons per minute, while the same pipe laid on ? per cent grade will carry 2,5o0 gallons per minute Furthermore, a culvert laid flat will soon fill up, while one hav- ing d good incline will keep itself clear.
 In the maintenance of all earth road, avoid the mistake of chang ing tile natural order of things. Naturally the soil is found on top and the clay on tue bottom. If this order is reversed in con- structing road, the result will be less satisfactory than if tie soil be left at the topof the road, for soil makes a better surface to a road than clay. Ii the road bed IS largely clay to start with, 1t will be we'll to place sandy soil or clean sand on top. A covering of 6 to 10 inches o1 sand upon clay that persists in break ing up into deep mudholes will