The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-11
Thinks Tar Would Be Better Than Oil for Use In Jeff
 ferSon County
BUILD FOR FUTURE AND
 SAVE MONEY IN REPAIRS
Fulton County Finds It Good Economy to Use Traction Engines In, Hand ling the Road Building
 Material.
BY BURR BLACKBURN.


 from Atlanta, where he, with President Job Going and J. Ed Hagler, went to look over the good roads and methods of Fulton county. 1T am impressed" said MT. Rogers, with the fact that we must use more modern methods and build more roads of better construction in Jeff ferson county. We must admit that we are behind Fulton county in road builds ing. They have no more mileage, but are building more permanently"
 While MT. Rogers talked at random, he had made careful study of the sit- uation in Atlanta, and was loaded with intHesting facts and figures we went out he said, ''to see the work in prog ress on the experimental roads, saw the crusher breaking the granite into proper shape, drove over the Speedway, which is a magnificent work that should spur the ambition of Birmingham citizen. went over the oiled roads and inspected the various forms of tar which are being used on the roads,
 Impressed With Tar Macadam.
 MT. Rogers was most favorably inn pressed with the tar macadam road, and did not think the oiled road practical for Jefferson county. "They used crushed granite instead of slag and hauled It from the quarry with a 24-horsepower traction engine which will carry 36 tons on an 8 per cent grade, and. go four miles on hour This is much faster and more economical haulage than our method of horses and wagons.
 
 They are building a wider road than Jefferson, with a 4O-foot driveway, seven inches thick and at this rate the road must cost close to $7000 a mie The method of preparing the roadbed Is mod ern and business-like They first use one layer of heavy stone of about four to six-inch mesh, then a coat of fine stone dust, which they dress to a grade with road machines and roll smoothly with a 14-ton roller. On top of this they put another layer of two-inch mesh stone. which forms the catch for the tar. After rolling it the tar is poured on, covered with stone screenings and carefully rolled, all the time sprinkling on just as much dust as the tar will absorb. On each side very expensive gutter of stone blocks eight inches by five is laid thus forming perfect drain.
 T think our slag and chert is best for road building, although we do not laS 1t as well. I was very much impressed with their method of preparing the sub grade which they roll smooth and hard. so that horse could travel over it with out difficulty. They have heavier rol- lers do more rolling and use better road machinery as whole.
 Fulton County's Experiments.
 Fulton county Is experimenting with asphalt, gas tar and coke tar the latter being shipped from Ensley and as vet 1t IS hard to tell which is the best binder the coke tar or the asphalt. We can only use tar with one or two grades of chert Tor if there is too much clay there will not be enough tar absorbed Figured roughly, and considering the small freight about s1300 mile, and the average mile of about 1900 mile, and the average mile of completed tar-capped road would cost about sSS0O a mle
 we have got to do something here to cheapen the handling of material. They use the traction engines economically over there, with greater speed, and the stone is distributed with absolute accuracy by a patent device on the cars, in uniform thickness. One man behind can level up as fast as five men behind a wagon.
 'Then think very highly of the experi- ments with tar so far as they have pro- of. keeping down the dust and prevents automobiles and heavy traffic from strip piping the railroad. There is practically no disintegration.
 we need heavier rollers, and our drain age system undoubtedly needs improving, for it now requires too much to maintain a road.
 Objection to oil Roads
 ''The oil roads look good while they are fresh, but sun and rain bring up the dust again. and you have to keep on oiling them necessarily. oil roads are perfect for a dry climate like southern California, where there is little rain and the sand does not grind up, but it Is not stable and too temporary for use on our county bikes.
 "The convicts of Fulton county, about 500 in all, are almost exclusively on the roads. They liked the convict labor, all though, of course, they have nothing else to put them at. looked into the camps and found them very comfortable. They have a big tent with a dirt floor, but everything was neat and clean. A chain ran through the, center of the tent and each man was chained up at night. The men looked healthy and contented. The foreman of one camp said that he had kept 150 men at the same place four months. and had only lost seven. ''The speedway is a magnificent stretch of two miles of the most perfect road I ever saw. It will cost when completed between $250,000 and $500 900. I consider it a great example of the push and hus- tie of Atlanta citizens, and Is certainly a lesson for us. They have already sold se.OOO worth of tickets for the coming event and claim that this is but start"
 Plans For Near Future.
 When asked about the plans of the | Board of Revenue for the immediate fu- ture MT Rogers said: While the road funds have already been drawn almost 1 to the last cent the money begins coming | in this month, and we get 1t during No l