The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1909-03-26
THE ROAD MEETING.


Last Friday afternoon the road
oyerseers of st. Francois county
met at the Court House to receive
instructions In matters relating Ia
road Improvement. Owing TO the
short notice given, the attendance
was not large. More than half Of
the overseers were present and al
so several ex-overseers and quite
number Of men interested In good
roads. County Highway Engineer
Holman gave n short talk of In
struction, touching the subjects Of
"listing of the poll tax payers,
collecting the tax, and the eNpendi-
ture Of the same by the ovcrsccrs "
Special attention was called to the
proper listing of the persons subject
to the payment of poll tax; that
being the first step IN the legal pro-
cess Of collecting such tax. In the
working of public roads the matter
of drainage was emphasized as of
the most Importance, and an absO-
lutte necessity In any class of con-
struction. Since the foundation of
all roads is dirt, and dry, compact
dirt will carry any load that can he
placed upon It, we see that water
must be removed as much ms pos
sible. IL matters not whether our
roads he of dirt, gravel or rock, they
will remain good only so long as
there II not too much water In them
or passing over them. And II we
take care Of the water the road will
take care Of itself.
( After Mr.. Holman's tails, and
| some discussions by the oversocrs
on matters relating to their work as
supervisors, the audience was en-
tcrtaincd with n very instructive
talk by Mr.. Geo. l.. Cooley OF North
Dover, Ohio. Mr.. Cooley is Super
inteudcnt of Road Construction for
the ONCE OF Public Roads, L. $.
| Department of Agriculture, Wash
/ ingtuu, d. G. He !, an engineer of
/ large experience i'm roud building,
having been for several years In
charge of the construction of great
many "Objcct lesson roads, through
i out the United States. In this work
!
road conditions rs they exist in al
lmOst every State of the Union. Mr..
Cooley gave minute instructions ms
60 how II road should he built. lie
declared good drainage to be ucces-
sary on any road, and stated that
should he have only Il small amount
to spend on road he would us,
most of II in drainage. AS we have
more earth roads than any other
kind, and that as the earth ROAD
was the foundation of all roads h,
would recommend the grading ant
dragging Of all the earth roads ant
the construction of proper culverts
And even though planning Il grave
or mncadam road he would suggest
first the construction of a first-clasS
earth rond AS n foundation for tn,
surface material. He is of the opin
ion that first class macadam roat
cannot be economically constructed
without the use of machinery. The
outfit 10 consist of a stone crushrl
with elevator and screen, pOrtHbl,
bins, spreading dump wagons and /
, steam roller. The details Of tn,
use of such machinery We're care
fully gone over and we are con
= WINGED that st. Francois county
! should have such an outfit.
IN the construction of grave
roads he stated that the best re-
suits were obtained by screening
the gravel and placing the coarser
/ stones as Telford base, then /
, layer of medium sized gravel nnC
> the top lnyer TO be fine gravel; eucl
layer to be thoroughly rolled as II
the case of macadam road. Thu
5 subject Of the "sand-clny" road wa
also explained thoroughly and thu
details and advantages of such con
struction given. The sand-cln!
. road can be made for about one
) third the cost of IA macadam road
: and In some localities the difIerenc,
in cost Is even greater. We are o
the opinion that this class of roat
could be used in some parts Of thi
= county to good advantages.
The road meeting was very IN
structivc and W" are satisfied tina
much good will result from tn
. t,rnptirnl Md nf Mr. tnplsN nm