The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-03-27

HINTS ON ROAD WORK.

| While American road builders are as
capabiei 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 maintaining the highways after
completion, and the deplorable state
! of many hundred thousand miles of
road is thus accounted for. County
and township officials may at the out
set stand for the expense of having
a road built, hut they strenuously
object when asked to provide funds to
rebuild the road that has been allowed
| to 90 to ruin. 1t is important that
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 persis-
tent 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 all damage as quickly
as possible. The simple implements
which have been found to be of great
est assistance in this work are the
plow, the drag scraper, the wheel
scraper, the road grader, and the split
log drag.
With sandy soil and a subsoil of
clay or clay and gravel, deep blowing
so as to raise and mix the clay with.
the surface sold and sand will prove
beneficial. The combination forms
sand clay road at a trifling 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
added. Such blowing would merely
deepen the sand, and at the same time
break up the small amount of hard
surface material which may have form
ed. If the subsoil is clay and the sur
face scant in sand or gravel, blowing
should not be resorted to, as it would
result in clay surface rather than
one of sand or gravel. A road fore
man must know not only what to
pillow and what not to pillow but how
and when to pillow. If the road is
of the kind which according to the
above instructions should be plowed
over its whole width, the best meth
cd is to run the first furrow in the
road and work out to the sides, thus
forming crown. Results from such
blowing are greatest in the spring
or early summer In bitches a pillow
can be used to good advantage, but
should be followed by a scraper or
grader. To make wide, deep bitches
nothing better than the ordinary drag
scraper has vet been devised. For |
bauls under 100 feet, or in making
"fills" it is especially serviceable. 1t
is mistake, however, to attempt to
handle long haul material with this
scraper, as the wheel scraper is bet
ter adapted to such work For hauls |
of more than 800 feet, wagon should
be used. 4
The machine most generally used in
road work is the grader, or road ma
chine. This machine is especially use-
full in smoothing and browning the road
in opening bitches. A clay subsoil un
der thin coating of soil should not |
be disturbed with grader. 1t is
also mistake to use grader indis-
and to pull material from
bitches upon a sand clay road. Not |
turf, soil and silt from
ditch bottoms are piled in the middle
of the road in 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 ihilt up by frequent
use of the grader Ssill last better than
if completed 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 of mud All material /
should be brought up in thin layers.
each LAWYER well puddled 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 possesses
great merit and is so simple in con-
struction and operation that every
farmer SHOULD have one.