Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1913-11-05
EARTH ROADS.
Suggestions as to Maiatenance, from
u. :. ONCE OF Public Roads.
Issued by Department. of Agriculture, oaicc
Of Public Roads,

II you look at the ordinary country road
after shower, you viii see small paddles
along the wheel-ruta and sometimes larger
pools. This water stays on the road sur
face because it cannot drain away into the
side bitches. II you look closely, you viii
see side bitches which have grown up
with bushes and weeds in many cases. and
which are 80 far from the travelled part OF
the road that the rain water does not
drain into them.
That part OF the roadway where the
wagons travel IL 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. II is then said to
have a crown. II it is ten feet from the
center OF the road to the side ditch, the
surface at the side ditch should be at least
ten inches lower than II Ia at the center
where the horses travel. The road then
has ten-inch crown. The rain that falls
ON q road properly crowned 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.
II the bitches merely coliec; the water
| from the road surface and it can not run
away, large pools will be formed along
the roadside, which will gradually soak
| into the soil beneath the road and make il
90 soft that the wheels of wagons win cut
| through the road surface and soon de-
| s,roy IL.
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 ere built
across the side bitches they frequently
form channels for water from the farm
yard to run into the road. The pipes
under driveways become filled with leaves
| or rubbish and the water can no longer
run away. II the drivcways that stop the
ditch water we're rebuilt so that no pipes
were necessary and the ditch could be left
open, much trouble from surface water
would be stopped.
| q
ground or through a 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, Ii would be
dry and hard. Sometimes o road passes
through what Is called a cut. This Is a
place where the earth has been dug out so
| "A stsk
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 underdrainage.
A good kind OF underdrainsge is q
trench to go along under the side drain
and about three feet deep and a foot and
a half wide. In this trench . pipe is
laid near the bottom and covered with
loose stones no bigger than an egg. When
the trench is completely flied with loose
stones the ground water, instead of soak
ing into the roadway, will stop among the
stones and how down the hill through
the pipe.
To keep a road smooth and crowned, the
best method is to drag it with a road
drag. road-drag is made easily with
two halves of log which has been split.
The leg should be about six or eight
inches in thickness and about six OF eight
feet long. The two halves OF the log
are set three feet apart with the smooth
faces forward and upright. They are then
fastened together with braces set in holes
bored through the log.
A pair OF horses may lie used to drag the
road and are hitched to a chain fastened
to the front half of the log. The road
drag should move forward SO that ii siants
across the road in such q way that 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 viii smooth out the ruts.
The best way to drag is to begin at the
side ditch and so up one side OF the road,
and then down the other. In the next
trip the drag should be started q little
nearer the center, and the last trip over
the road the drag may work close to 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 II tends
to make the surface of the road smooth
and wster-tight after the sun comes out.
The road is always dragged after it has
rained and not when 1t Is dry.
A good, strong pair OF horses with a
we'll built drag can drag about three or
four miles of road in day, and it is the
best way to maintain good roads. In
every county some farmer along each four
miles of road should own drag, and drag
the road when 1t rains, and be would
always find the road in good condition
when he goes to market.
I