Milford chronicle., 1913-07-04
REPAIR and MAINTENANCE
OF EARTH ROADS.


If you look at the ordinary road after
a shower, you will see small puddles
along the wheel ruts and sometimes lar
ger pools. This water stays on the road
surface because il 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 lis called the travelled way To
prevent water from standing on the trav-
eled way the road should be raised in the
centre and should slope gently into broad
shallow bitches. II is then said to have
a crown. If it is ten feet from the cen
ter of the road to the side ditch, the sur
face at the side ditch should be at least
ten inches lower than II is at the center
where the horses travel. The road then
has a ten 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 70
the right Of way, and should be open at
every low point so that the water can run
ont of them into neighborng brooks or
streams If the bitches merely collect
the water from the road surface and it
can not run away, large pools VII be
formed along the roadside, which Will
gradually soak into the soil beneath the
road and make il so soft that the wheels
of wagons viii cut through the road sur
face and soon destroy Il.
Some tunes water runs from land along
the road into the rosd and forms a little
stream down the wheel tracks or in the
middle where the horses travel. When
drivrways into farm yards are built across /
the side bitches they frequently form
channels for water from the farm ward
90 ruu into the road The pipes under
ar'yeways become filed with leaves or
rubbish and the water can no longer ruu
away. If the driveways that stop the
ditch water were rebuilt So that no pipes
We're necessary and the ditch could be
.eit open much trouble from surface wa
Ter would DE stopped
Sometimes a road runs across low
ground or through a swamp Where the
road can not be drained by side bitches
alone. II the road were built her ike
"A railroad emb lukment across such low
land and made with a Crown,it would be
dry and hard. Sometimes a road passes I
through what Is called q cut. This is a
place where the earth has been dug ont
so that the road can 20 over hill with (
ont being too steep. The water which .
always flows quietly under The ground T..
on hill sides is known as ground water. .
In road cuts such water some tiules makes
the road very muddy, and the road then
needs what Toad builders call under
drainage a good kind of Underdrain I
age is a trench 70 go along under the .
side drain and about th-ee feet deep and .
a foot and a-haif wide lu this trench a
pipe is laid near the bottom ana covered +
with loose stones 10 bigger than an egg
When the trench is completely filled .
with loose stones the ground water, in
ste d 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 road drag is made easily with
two halves of log which has been split.
The log should be about six or eight
inches in thickness and abont six or
aight feet long. The two halves Of the
log are set three feet apart with the
smooth faces forward and upright They
AZ AA4NA 4a1-EANA AAEEAA4EA MAAA hAaAES
set in holes bored through the log.
pair Of horses may be used 10 drag the
road and are hitched to a chain fas-
ened to the front half of the log The
-oad drag should move forward so that
{ slants across the road in such a way
hat a small amount of earth will slide
)ast the smooth face of the log toward
he center of the road thus forming the
fTfaa rfNrrac nH mill g
mooth out the ruts. The best way to 4
lrag is TO begin at the side ditch and 90
Ip one side of the road, and then down
he other. In the next trip the drag s
hould be started little nearer the CEN I
er and the last trip over the road the /
rag may work close to the centre itself
mall ridges of earth Will be thrown in j
he horse track and smeared hy the round {
ide of the log smoothly over the road,
he suearing of the earth by the drag Is
allied pudding and 1t tends TO make {
be surface of the road smooth and p
ater light after the sun comes out. 2
he road is always dragged after it has
aimed, and not when il S dry. a good
r0ng pair Of horses with a wei-built Z
rag can drag about three or four miles b
road in q day, and il IS the best way s
} maintain good roads, Tn every county T
lme farmer along each four miles of a
lad should own a drag and drag the 6
,ad when it rains, and he would always
nd the road in good condition when he 4
)es to market
Owing to the fact that many rural y
hools were closed at the time when 81
e prize maintenance essay was am n
1nced by director LoganSWaller Page, Il
the Office Of Public Roads, it has been
.cided to extend the limit for receiving
e.essays to October is, 1913. In addi |
IN to the gold medal given as FIRST 4
ize, two silver medals viii be given as
cond and third prizes. If child who r
IS submitted one essay previous to the
sue Of this notice should care to try tC
ain, he is at liberty to do so, but he C
ust be pupil Of rural school, There q
some misunderstanding in regard to al
e subject of the essay. The idea is to "
{ the children thinking how to better v
cir. earth roads with the material they al
- ] 4