The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1913-04-29
SUGGESTIONS FOR ORGANIZING FOR
CRAWLING AND CARE OF THE ROADS

placed when the grading is done next
summer. Then another very impor-
tant reason is that if the gravel is
not now placed handy, all those cuts
and fills will be loose and almost i'm
passible the greater part of next sum-
mer on these great highways, where
usually the cost of crawling would
more than pay for itself in one month.
1t was ascertained last summer that
the average days travel over the
graveled road between here and Man
kato was over three hundred vehicles
a day, and very low estimate of the
value of the gravel road to every one
over a mud road would be two cents
a mile or $500 a day, or $4,000 a
month for each mile, and that would
pay for the crawling in one month if
the gravel did not have to be hauled
over six miles.
A little investigation, of the cost of
crawling, together with little study
OF the increased travel that always
goes over gravel road of any dis
lance soon after it's completion (where
the gravel and sand has been properly
put on) together with the differ
ence in cost of the travelling the good
road to the mud road, will astonish
any man, and if these facts were well
known there would not be a main
road in the state that would not be
graveled in the next few months.
Any one that understands these
facts would even gravel the fills and
the hills that must be torn up next
summer, because it would pay several
times over for the spring travel, but
people do not know and they will not
learn in a day. A few years hence
men will wonder why it was that we
did not learn these things years ago,
but the main trouble was that we
did not know how to apply sand and
gravel so it would make nearly as
good a road as macadam, at a small
fraction of the cost of macadam, and
fully as easy to keep in good repair.
The whole thing is in knowing how
to apply it so it will mix with the
dirt.
Dump boards can be made of 2x4-
2x6 or even 2x8 or they can be mixed.
Fir is preferable but hemlock is
usually used, and is good if a little
care is used in selecting good pieces.
They should be IL feet long, with
handle made on one end by saving in
each side of stick, about one inch,
three inches back from end of stick,
and then split off the inch piece on
each side and round up the handle a
little. One end is all that is necessary
to "handle" unless a dump man"
is kept at dumping place to unload,
and this is entirely unnecessary as
the sand should be left in the middle
OF the road, mostly, and once running
lengthwise Of the dump with COM
mon road drag will leave it in better
shape than man could do it by
hand at one hundredth part of the
expense of the man.
The side boards should be 2x14
twelve foot long, with cleats to hold
2x12 end boards. The cleats should
run to top of side boards but not
within two inches of bottom, as the
sides set down below the bottom.
The side boards can be made of 2x12
with 2x2 spiked on top to make
them 2x14 or 2x10 and 2x4. The
end cleats will hold the two pieces
together if one spike is also put in
middle. All hubs of the wagons haul
ing sand should be covered with a
piece of tin nailed to axle.
Material for dump boards will cost
about $500 a set. Lumberman can
usually be induced to furnish them as
his share in the donation work as he
can usually sell them after the work
is done at small loss.
1t is always advisable for those
having charge of the work to furnish
dump boards otherwise there will be
no uniformity of loads hauled and
the convenience of having good tools
to work with is great help, and it
is easier to get work donated.
These dump-boards if well rounded
up, will hold a full yard and half
and any small team will handle it
easily on fair roads. We are paying
our crews just now 60c load on two
to two and half mile haul, soc from
one and a half to two miles, and 4Oc
from one to one and half miles, and
30c under one mile. If the pit is
kept handy, and several will work
together, and keep two or three
shovelers they can make from 80 to
40 cents an hour and some hustlers
make more.
o.