The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1908-04-09
Model Earth Road

The United States Office of Public
Roads Tells How TO Make and
Maintain a Good Road
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 maintaining the high
ways after completion and the de-
plorable state of many hundred
thousand miles of road is thus ac-
counted 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 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 impressed with the need of a
proper maintenance of the same and
that road builders and overseers
learn how best to care for the roads
ih their charge.
The persistent and powerful enc
mics 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 de-
structive effects and remedy all dam
age as quickly as possible. The sim
pie implements 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 sandy soil and subsoil of
clay, or clay and gravel, deep blowing
so as to raise and mix the clay with
the surface soil and sand will prove
beneficial. The combination forms
sand clay road at tri1ing 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 add
ed.
Such blowing 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 pillow and what not to pillow,
but how and when TO pillow. II the
road is of the kind which, according
to the above Instructions should be
plowed over its whole Width, the best
method is to run the first furrow i'll
the middle of the road and work to
the sides, thus forming crown. Re-
suits from such blowing are greatest
in the spring or early summer.
In bitches pillow can be used to
good advantage, but should be follow
ed by a scraper or grader. To make
wide, deep bitches nothing better
than the ordinary drag scraper has
yet been devised. For hauls under
100 feet, or in making ellis" it is
especially seryiceable. 1t is mis-
take, however, to attempt to handle
long haul material with this scraper
as the wheel scraper is better adapted
to such work. For haul, OF more
than 800 feet, a wagon should be
used.
The machine most generally used
in road work is the grader, or road
machine. This machine is especially
useful in smoothing and GROWING 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 grader
indiscriminately and to pull material
from bitches upon sand clay road.
Not infrequently turf, soil and silt
from ditch bottoms are piled in the
middle of the road III ridge, making
mud holes a certainty. Ii Is impor-
tant i'll using grader to avoid bu.id
ing up the road TOO much ut OF
time. A road gradually butt up by
frequent use OF the grader will last
better than II completed at one
operation.
The foreman frequently thinks his
road must be high i'll the first IN
stance. He piles up material from
ten inches TO d foot in depth only TO
learn, with the arrival of the first
ram, that he has furnished the ma
terial for as many inches of mud. All
material should be brought up in
thin layers, each layer well puddled
and firmly packed by roller or traf-
hc before the next is added. A COM
mon mistake ~ to crown too high
with the road machine on a 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 sim
pie in construction and operation
that every farmer should have one.
A special article will be published
later telling how to make and use the
drag.