The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-06-24

I'VE had expected to have with US
State Engineer Cooley, to give a talk
upon practical road making and main
tenance, but unfortunately we were not
able to secure him. 1t is not SO much
that we need to be told new things,
as it is to be reminded to do the things
that we already know. Occasionally
there are new developments lin road
making, as in everything else The
| Commercial club brought man from
the Eastern part of this state a few
weeks ago to give a practical demon
! stratiOn of how we'll and how cheaply
roads could be graded by traction
engine, pulling two graders at once. 1t
was clearly proven that with such an
outfit mile of ordinary road could be
graded in a days time at a cost of
about 1923. When completed the road
was not mass of sod and loose stuff
in the middle of the road that could
not be used, but was in pretty fair
shape for actual use the moment the
grading outfit was through.
'The sod was first scraped into the
road and then covered by the loose
| dirt and the traction engine acted as
road roller after the harrow that
was kept going continually to smooth
down the surface of the road. The
surface was well rounded and presented
no pitch holes to catch the rain as
| is generally the case.
"The practice of simply scraping up
! sods, mud, etc, and dumping them in
a narrow strip in the middle of the
road is exceedingly bad from every
! standpoint of road building. A road
should be thoroughly graded and ground
left so as to present no chance for
the water to remain in the road. A
mistake is often made by trying to
make a very wide road bed. The best
practice now is to make road bed of
from twelve to twenty feet wide with
clearly defined bitches and sufficient
crown to the road bed so the water
can Immediately run off and not stand
in the bitches and soak up and spoil
the whole road.
Cost of Grading Road.
"When a mile of road can be thor
oughly graded for $40 to $25, what
excuse can there be for any roads
being left in the state of nature, in
Blue Earth county? When a road is
ptopSIiN SiouSu anu NioNhCu II Noh
be kept in splendid condition by the
use of the King drag, but to do this
there must be some system used. The
only time that a road can be dragged
to any advantage is after rain. There
is time then when the scraper will
leave the road smooth with every lit
tie depression filled and the action OF
the drag in pressing down the moist
earth results in short time in very
hard compact, solid road bed that will
shed rain very readily. If the road
drag is used too late, it is all lost.
Such road will become hard and
rough and scraper will have scarcely
any effect upon it.
"A system should be devised so that
every main travelled road in this en-
tire vicinity will be gone over with
King drag after every rain. To do
more than from So to So per mile,
depending of course, upon the amount
of rain. The ideal plan would be for
each farmer to drag the road in front
of his own farm, and | am glad to
see that some men are public spirited
enough to do this without any pay
whatever. What an Improvement to
the appearance of the rich farms of
Blue Earth county would well kept
road be- 1t would speak volumes for
the enterprise and public spirit of the
owners. The time will come when
man will be ashamed to have a poor
road in front of his farm. There may
have to be a good many funerals first,
but it is surely coming. l believe,
however, that the townships can well
afford to pay for this work. There is
not town represented here that can
not easily afford to buy drags for all
overseers and pay them, or pay some
one csc for dragging the roads. The
township of jamestown this year
bought a number of drags. One of
the town board told me. We are GO
ing to have better roads 1t was
out in that township early in the
season before they commenced to use
the drags and their roads were rough
and in miserable shape. The next
time / went over | would not have
known the country from the looks OF
the road. Some one of intelligence
had used those scrapers and the road
was as smooth and i'm as good cOndi-
ton to do business over almost as
Front street. Such men deserve and
should receive great credit. 1t is a
pleasure to go over the road and it
certainly must be pleasure to man
who has to haul produce over it.
.There are other roads, and plenty
of them, that have not seen a drag
this year. They speak for themselves,
and they speak louder than words.
The Commercial and Automobile clubs,
of this city, have given away a good
many drags, not but that the towns
could better have afforded to pay for
these drags, ten times over, but for
some reason they would not do it, and
we gave the drags where we had
assurance that they would be used.
remember we have one drag which
stood beside the road for over a year
before it was ever hitched onto Is it
any wonder that in that district this
year on one of the main travelled roads
leading into the city, team could
not get through the road for weeks,
but had to 60 out on the side of the
road, as they would certainly have got
ten stuck in the road. | tried it and
before | knew it, | was fast in the
mud and had to get shovel and prys
and work for some time to get out.
Two hours work with a grading outfit
would have put that road into splen
did condition and a King drag would
have kept it all summer in fine shape
at cost of dollar or two.
Matter a Personal Element
al e ga Ill