The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-06-21
Best Method of Keeping Them
Smooth and Crowned Is
to Use Log Drag
20-FOOT ROAD SHOULD
HAVE 1O-INCH CROWN
Keep Side bitches open at Every Low
Point-Roads Across Swampy Ground
Should be Built Up Like Railroad
Embankment.

II you LOOK at the t'dlnaFY cOWLurT |
road after a shower You will see smae |
Puddlas along the wheel ruts and sosne-
times 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 eases, 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 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 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 I0-inch crown.
The rain that falls on the road prop
! erly crowned viii run quickly to the
side and not soak into the surface or
form pools. The side bitches for sur
/ face water should run parallel to the
/ right of way, and should be open at
every low poiHt so that the water can
run out of them into neighboFing
4 brooks or streams. If the bitches mere
/ IN collect the water from the road sur
face and it cannot run away, large
pools viii 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 de-
stroy it.
Sometimes water runs from land
along the road into the road and forms
a little stream down the wheel tracts
or in the middle where the horses tray
ell. When drivewavs into farm yards
are built across the side bitches they
frequently form channels for water from
, the farm ward to run into the ROAD.
The pipes under driveways become
filed with leaves or rubbish and the
water can no longer run away. If the
driveways that stop the ditch water
were built so that no pipes were nee
| essarv and the ditch could be left open,
| much trouble from surface water would
be stopped.
! Sometimes q road runs across low
/ ground or through a swamp where the
/ road can not be drained by side bitches
alone. If tile 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
a cut This is place where the earth
! has been dug out so that the road can
90 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 needs
what road builders call undertakings,
A good kind of underdrainage is a
trench to go along under the side drain
and about three feet deep and foot
and a half wide. In this trench q
pipe is laid near the bottom and GOV
9. cred with loose stones no larger thar
: an egg. When the trench is completed
II an egg. When the trench is completely
|. filed with loose stones the grount
+ water, instead of soaking into the road
l. way, will stop among the stones an'
n flow down the hill through the pipe
To keep a road smooth and crowned
It the best method is to drag it with ;
n road drag. A road drag is made easily
with two halves of a log which have
been split. The log should be abou
six or eight inches in thickness am
about six or eight feet long. The tWi
halves of the log are set three fee
apart with the smooth faces FORWARD
and upright. They are then fastene'
together with braces set in holes bore
through the log. A pair of horses ma.
= be used to drag the road and are hit
ched to a chain fastened to the from
half Of the log The road drag shout
move forward so that it slants acros
the road in such a way that sma
amount of earth viii slide past tn
smooth face Of the log toward the eel
ter of the road, thus forming tn
crown The edges of the log will
lrs smooth out the ruts The best way t
drag is to begin at the side Of the ditc
and go up one side of the road an
then down the other. In the next tri
the drag should be started little nea
: er the center and the last trip ovC
the road the drag may work close
the center itself Small ridges of cart
- will be thrown in the horse track ar
me smeared by the round side OF the Il
smoothly over the road. The smea
ing of the earth by the drag is Gale
pudding and it tends to make Il
n surface of the road smooth and waite
D.. tight after the sun comes out. The rot
is always dragged after il has rain'
and not when it is dry A good, stroi
lis pair of horses with a well-built dri
can drag about three or four miles
road in a day, and it IS the best w
to maintain good roads. In every cou
tv some farmer along each four nail
of road should own drag and DR.
the road when it rains. lie would