The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1910-04-14
GOOD HIGHWAYS ARE VERY
EASY TO MAKE.
Iowa Highway Commission Issues a
Bulletin Telling how Roads are
to be Made.

Bulletin Telling how Roads are
to be Made.
The Iowa Highway Commission,
which has had great deal Of exper-
fence with the split-log drag, has is
sued bulletin containing the follow
| ing strong endorsement of the bene-
fits of the King split-log drag:
The work of road maintenance in
Iowa is largely confined to the care
of earth roads. Within the last two
years the methods have undergone
complete change and the use of the
! split-log drag and other simple con-
trivances for this purpose has extend
| ed into every township and county Of
| this state.
| First, last and all the time the
timely and liberal use of the road
drag will pay bigger returns on the
money invested than the use of any
other road implement. This assertion
while apparently dogmatic, will ap-
peal to those who know, as a good
safe rule for the township trustees
and road superintendent and street
commissioners Of the average Iowa
town to adopt for 1910 and to put in
to force Immediately. Much more
can be accomplished during the
spring and winter months than dur
ing the summer and fall months. The
roads on which the drag has been u.s.
ed during the winter are in much
better shape to withstand the sue
ceeding wet and thawing weather.
When the frost is coming out" of
| the roads is a critical time with them.
The loose, moist condition, if taken
advantage of, will make a wonderful
improvement, but, if neglected, be-
comes a great sponge, ready to catch
and retain the spring rains. The use
of the drag now will accomplish the
| following results in a greater or less
degree, depending on the number OF
times and the care with which the
drag is used:
/. First of all the water standing
in the ruts and depressions or run
ming down the wheel tracks will be
thrown out of the travelled way to
the side bitches.
9. These ruts and depressions will
be filled with moist earth, which in
this condition will pack and become
a part of the roadbed.
3. The shoulders at each side will
be built up where traffic has fatten-
ed and slowed them into wide bitches.
4. Ridges which the wheels have
formed between the center of the
road and the sides of the bitches will
be smoothed down and the center OF
the road will be built up, giving the
water that falls on the travelled por-
ton of the road an opportunity to
get away.
I~o rCi, ~
with the drag hitched at an angle Of
bitches can be cleaned Of water OF
dirt thrown down by the front from
overhanging banks and the roac
gradually widened.
6. The seed beds between the
center of the road and side ditche:
waiting to grow into mass of nox
destroyed now.
Z. If the soil is just moist, eacl
time the drag is used thin layer
will be added to the travelled portion
Of the road, which will pack into ant
build up hard surface crust under
the traffic; if it is wet, the water viii
be forced out, drying the road in {
much shorter time.
8. Dragging in March, April ant
May will reduce the dust in June
July and August and September.
8. The action of the frost has pu
the soil in such condition now tina
two horses will do the work o
four little later.
10. The waves and ruts can b.
taken out of gravel roads now, AM
, the material which has been force
toward the side bitches brought bacl
onto the travelled way The wheel
will do all the rolling necessary.
II. BY reversing. the drags o.
! hills and throwing the earth move
from the center Of the road to tn
, side bitches, deep and dangerou
bitches at the roadside may soon b
filled and the grade of the whole hi
i lowered.
The responsibility for having tn
!. drag used has been fixed by tn
legislature on the township trustee
1 and the road superintendent.
The drainage on steep hillsides, G
on fiat, wet stretches of road wher
the ground water stands at high levt
will supplant the use of the road dra
and prove a splendid investmen
q Such places as these will show up &
being particularly bad and will r.
main wet long after the roads in tn
vicinity have dried. A six-inch till
I sometimes only a few hundred fee
long, down one side of the road,
} properly laid, may prove sufficient
drain the road; only extreme case
, will require two lines; $65 to $40 pc
1000 feet should lay six-inch tile
feet deep, and 10 per cent to 20 pe
} cent of the road funds of the ave
age township could well be investe
6 in tile drainage. This would amour
to 500 or 5000, which at the aboN
figures would lay considerab
8 amount of tile. 1t would profit eac
township to select its road superb
8 tendent at once, if this has not a
ready been done, and send him ov'
!. the principal roads of the townsh
! to note the length and number
places that are badly in need of ii
drainage, as these places will be pa
ticulaly apparent during the spri1
months