Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-01-05

In view of the fact that at the
beginning of the year no less than
90 per cent, or approximately 2,OOO,-
900 miles, of the roads of the coun-
try were of the ordinary earth type,
| it is important for the farmer to un-
derstand the best methods of improv-
! ing such roads.
The Office of Public Roads advises !
the communities to have an engineer
go over the old earth highways; or,
in lieu of an engineer that the farm
ers themselves should see to 1t that
the roads are so graded that the
bitches or cutters are parallel with
the center line of the road. Cutters
must have a uniform grade and be
of sufficient capacity to keep the sur
face we'll drained. Drainage is the
most important feature of an earth
road.
Every farmer who lives in sec
t ton where both sand and clay are
( prevalent travels occasionally over
some particular spot in the road
: which is always good and rarely re-
iuuires attention from the road hands.
= Good drainage may be responsible
for this condition, or it may be found
v on investigation that there is good
v natural mixture of sand and clay
forming the wearing surface. If this
S strip of road is always good there Is
no reason why a surface of similar
material on the entire road should
not produce like results.
t At the recent gathering of state
l. highway engineers at the American
= Road Congress at Detroit, Mich, w
,r S. Keller, state highway engineer o.
!. Alabama, who has had long expert
i ence with sand-clay roads, stated tina
p a natural mixture of sand and ella!
re- can nearly always be found wher
m the two soils are found separate.
j. Analysis of the best natural sand
r clay mixtures will show that the san,
rv forms about 70 per cent of the whole
d. The test is simple. Weigh into a
ordinary medicine glass two ounce
of the dried mixture and wash ou
the clay. Dry the remaining san
or and weigh again. The loss in weigh
II will represent the amount OF ella
originally contained in the mass.
nd The theory of the sand-clay mi
,st ture as a road-building material
that the clay fills the voids betwee
the grains of sand, firmly bindir
them together. After the material
found the process of building II
road is simple. Before placing al
he sand-clay on the road the road shouI
at be graded to the desired width. Mo
to- engineers prefer to have a width II
70 the road of about 20 feet, exclusi'
of side bitches, which are each usua
" about three feet wide. Sand-cl;
= is cheap, and it is best that 16 fe
of the graded width go feet
= surfaced. This will leave a two
cG9 three foot shoulder on either sid
he The surface OF the graded ro;
nd should be flat or slightly conve
Ice The sand-clay should be put on fro
10 s to IL inches in thickness depen
- ing on the character OF the subgra
md or foundation. When you have
so hard clay for foundation, inches
DIV, sand-clay will suffice. If the found
10Y; ton is sand it is we'll to put on
much as IL inches of the surfaci
adj material. After a few hundred fe
,rt- of surfacing material has been plac
to grading machine should be run oy
ing :. - .,,oo.h o,d orour tho road
nm fore the top becomes too hard.
the is a good plan to turn the blade
the machine out and trim the eds
= of the surfaced part, discharging
. excess sand and clay onto the eaI
one shoulders. After one round t
laS "ao with the blade turned out the
off naming dress work with the machi
should be with the blade turned
with the exception of one trip do
the center of the road with blade
Z right angle to the axis of the re
I for the purpose of distributing a
J. excess material left in the center
Z After the machine work it is "