The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1913-07-19
THE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE
OF EARTH ROADS.

If you look at the ordinary country
road after shower you will see small
puddles along the wheel ruts and some
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 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 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 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 10-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 mere
ly collect the water from the road sur
face and it can not run away, large
pools will 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 along
the road into the road and forms lit
tie 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 fire.
quently form channels for water from
the farm yard to run into the road,
The pipes under driveways become
filled with leaves or rubbish and water
can no longer run away. If the drive
ways 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 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 a crown,
it would be dry and hard. Sometimes
road passes through what is called a
cut This is place where the earth
has been dug out SO that the road can
go over 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 undertakings. A
good kind of underdrainage is trench
to go along under the side drain and
about 8 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 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 s inches in thickness and about {
or 8 feet long. The two halves of the
og are set 8 feet apart with the smooth
faces forward and upright. They are
then fastened together with braces SCI
| in holes bored through the log. A pail
LOT horses may be used to drag the roat
land are hitched to a chain fastened t.