Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1908-06-25
GIVES ADVICE
FOR GOOD ROADS

As this Is the season when a great
many roads are being worked with the
big grader, the Good Roads associa-
tion or Lycoming county desires to
call the attention of ali Supervisors,
road masters and the general public to
the superiority of the Split Log Drag
over the road grader as 900 frequently
operated.
A little observance and experience
should teach any practical farmer that
a much better road can be made with
the drag, where the road bed has first
been graded and is used for some time
than can be made by a second use of
the grader. Then though the old road
bed be followed in the middle it will
be evened up quite fully in surpris.
ingly short time.
We can make the drag carry more or
less dirt into the middle of the road
by skillful operation When this dirt
| is moved when wet it is more or less
| puddled, and travel still further puddles
! it and cOmpacts it. This first layer Of
puddled earth makes the foundation of
the road. Every subsequent layer
! thickens and hardens it, and in time
makes the road too high in the mid
die. 1t can then be Ieveled off by
hitohing to the middle OF the chain
and running the drag along the middle
of the road, thus grading It down and
making it oval instead of bridged in
the centre.
Every farmer is quite familiar with
the condition of an old road after it
has been graded up with a road grad
er. While the grader smo0thes the
road along the edges, it carries into
the middle of the road all the sods,
clods, stones, tin cans, old bottles,
straw weeds and other rubbish. The
operator, thinking to do good job,
levels this up with dirt from the ditch
and makes it apparently smooth and
oval, often better place in the mid
die for a garden than for team At
the same time the grader shaves of
the hard surface that may. be on either
side of the road and makes it soft, for
the action of the grader and the drag
are quite distinct and opposite-the
grader smooths by cutting, the drag by
pudding. The grader lands loose dirt
in the middle Of the road; the drag
lands partially puddled clay in centre
, Of the road and compaots it. The grad
er leaves the road, whether in the mid
die or on the sides, IN an excellent con
dition to grow choice crop Of weeds,
which at each drifting7dust, keeps the
road moist, and bv their decay add
purely vegetable matter entirely unfit
for road building. The drag kills
weeds in their seed leaf and so pud
!, dies the soil that nothing can grow
upon it. The traveller as he uses the
road made by the grader naturally
avoids the middle and takes the smooth
er sides, which, being soft. because
the hard surface has been shaved of
by the grader, naturally ruts up this
road bed and tends to shove it into the
ditch. Then comes heavy rain. The
loose dirt holds this rain Just like a
plowed field. The settling of it leaves
it rough, the clods and sods resist pres
sure. while the loose dirt settles tc
! the bottom, and a wagon simply make
deep. uneven rut through this soft,
yielding substance, spelling for evel
e the grade.
: Water stays at the bottom OF these
' ruts. and as the surface is not puddled
it is readily absorbed by the soil and
it will require from six months to q
= year of constant travel, ipflicting more
or less misery on the traveller, to ge
this newly graded road into any sort
( of good condition or, if the grade be
S steep, rushes down at mad rate and
, makes a deep gully, thus undoing all
: the work of the grader. Every farmer
l knows how instinctively he avoids the
middle Of these newly graded roads
One experience Of this kind should be
: sufficient to teach him how incompar.
Z ably better is the split log drag thar
any road grader for the purpose of re
5 constructing the grade in a puddled
3 road.