The Republican journal., 1913-07-17
The Repair and Maintenance
of Earth Roads.

WASHINGTON, D. c., July IA, 1913. If
you look at the ordinary country road af-
ter a shower you will see small puddles
along the wheel ruts ard sometimes
larger pools. This water stays on the
road surface because it cannot drain
away into the side bitches. If you look
closely you will 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 into them.
That part of the roadway where the wag-
ons travel is called the Travelled way. To
prevent water from standing on the trav-
eled way the road should be raised in the
center and should slope gently into broad
shallow bitches. 1t is then said to have a
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
inches lower than it is at the center
where the horses travel. The road then
has a 1O-inch crown. The rain that falls
on a 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. If the bitches merely col
Iect 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 it so soft that the wheels
of wagons will cut through the road sur
face 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 channels for water from the farm
yard to run into the road The pipes un-
der driveways become filled with leaves
or rubbish and the water can no longer
run away If the driveways that stop
the ditch water were rebuilt so that no
pipes were necessary and the ditch could
be left open, much trouble from surface
water would be stopped.
Sometimes a road runs across low
ground or through a swamp where the
road can not be drained by side bitches
alone. If the road were built higher like
a railroad embankment across such low
land and made with crown, it would be
dry and hard. Sometimes road passes
through what is called cut. This is a
place where the earth has been dug out
so that the road can 60 over hill with
out 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 underdrain-
age. A good kind of undertakings is a
trench to go along under the side drain
and about 3 feet deep and 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 filled with loose
stones the ground water, instead of soak
ing into the roadway, will stop among
the stones and flow down the hill through
the pipe.
To keep a road smooth and crowned
the best method is to drag it with a road
drag. A road drag is made easily with
two halves of log which has been split.
The log should be about or inches in
thickness and about or 8 feet long.
The two halves of the log are set 3 feet
apart with the smooth faces forward and
upright. They are then fastened to-
gether 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 fastened to the front half of
the log. The losd Greg should NOV