The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-06-25
TO MAINTAIN EARTH ROADS
Properly Crowned and Drained They
VIII Endure Hard Usage.

water STAYS on the road surface be-
cause it. cannot drain away into the
side bitches. If you look closely you
win see side bitches which have
| grown up with bushes and weeds in
many cases, and which are SO far
from the travelled part of the road
| that the rain water does not drain
tinto them. That part of the road
way where the wagons travel is
called the travelled way. To prevent
water from standing ON the travelled
way the road should be raised in
the center and should slope gently
into broad shallow bitches. 1t is
| then said to have q crown. If it is
| 10 feet from the center of the road
to the side ditch, the surface at the
side ditch should be at least 10 in
ches lower than 1t is at the center
| where the horse travel. The road
| then has 10-inch crown. The rain
that falls on a road properly crown
ed will run quickly to the side and
not soak into the surface or form
pools. The side bitches for surface
water should run parallel to the right
of way, and should be open at every
| low point so that the water can run
out of them into neighboring brooks
or streams. If the bitches merely
collect the water from the road sur
face and 1t can not run away, large
pools win be formed along the road
side, which will gradually soak into
| the soil beneath the road and make
| it so soft that the wheels of wagons
will cut through the road surface
and soon destroy it,
Sometimes water runs from land
along the road into the road and
forms little stream down the wheel
tracks or in the middle where the
horses travel When driveways into
| farm yards are built across the side
bitches they frequently form chan
nels for water from the farm yard
to run into the road. The pipes I'M
| der driveways become filled with
leaves or rubbish and the water
can no longer run away If the drive
| ways that stop the ditch water were
rebuilt so that no pipes were neces-
sary and the ditch could be left open
| much trouble from surface water
| would be stopped.
Sometimes a road runs across low
ground or through swamp where
| the road can not be drained by side
bitches alone. IL the road were built
higher like a railroad embankment
across such low land and made with
| a crown, it would be dry and hard.
Sometimes a road passes through
what is called cut. This is a place
where the earth has been dug out so
that the road can go over a hill
without being too steep The water
which always flows quietly under the
ground on hill sides is known as
ground water. In road cuts such
water sometimes makes the road
very muddy, and the road then
needs what road builders call under
drainage. A good kind of under.
drainage is trench to go along I'M
der the side drain and about feet
deep and a foot and half wide. In
this trench a pipe is laid near the
bottom and covered with loose
stones no bigger than an egg. When
the trench is completely filled with
loose stones the ground water, in
stead Of soaking into the roadway.
will stop among the stones and flow
down the hill through the pipe.
To keep road smooth and crown
ed the best method is to drag it
with road drag. A road drag is
made easily with two halves of log
which has been split The log should
be about or s inches in thickness
and about 6 or feet long. The two
halves of the log are set feet
apart with the smooth faces forward
and upright. They are then fasten-
ed together with braces set in holes
bored through the log. A pair of
horses may be used to drag the
road and are hitched to chain fas-
tened to the front half of the log.
The road drag should move forward
so that 1t slants across the road in
such way that a small amount of
earth will slide past the smooth face
OF the log toward the center of the
road, thus forming the crown. The |
edges OF the logs will smooth out
the ruts. The best way to drag is |
TO begin at the side ditch and go up |
one side of the road, and then down
the other. In the next trip the drag
should be started little nearer the |
cenier and the last trip over the |
road the drag may work close 20 the |
center itself. Small ridges of earth |
will be thrown in the horse track |
and smeared by the round side OF |
the log smoothly over the road The |
smearing of the earth by the drag is |
called pudding" and il tends to |
make the surface of the road smooth |
and watertight after the sun comes |
out The road Is always dragged af- |
ter II has rained and not when IL is |
dry. A good, strong pair of horses |
with welLbuilt drag can drag about
3 or 4 miles of road in a day, and IL
is the best way to maintain good
roads. In every county some farmer
along each miles of road should
own a drag and drag the road when
1t rains. He would always find the
road in good condition when he
goes to market
Owing to the fact that many rural
schools were closed at the time
when the prize maintenance essay
was announced by Director Logan
Waller Page of the Office of Public
Roads, II has been decided to extend
the limit for receiving the essays to
October is. 1913. In addition to the
gold medal given as first prize. two
silver medals will be given as sec
ond and third prizes. IN child
who has submitted one essay prev
ious to the issue OF this notice
should try again. he is at liberty to
do so, but he must be a pupil of a
rural school. There is some misun-
derstanding in regard to the sub.