Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1916-03-17
GGhe Maintenance
of Our Earth Roads

(By II. L. Morrison, of the Agricul-
tural and Mechanical College Of
Texas.)
The subject of maintenance OF
earth roads is most vital one, and
in many towns more important than
construction; in fact, the difference
between good and bad methods of
construction is very largely a mat
ter of the resulting effect upon the
maintenance Every county in Tex
as spends thousands of dollars every
year in the maintenance and repair
of the county roads, whether any
thing is spent on construction or not,
and the money which is wasted an
nually on this work, through the
use of wrong methods, would build
many miles of good roads.
Our present system of working
out road taxes is essentially insult
ficient and wasteful Usually gangs
of men without organization, knowl-
edge of the work or proper tools,
get out for two or three days at
time and the main idea is often TO
put in the time and do as little work
as possible. The work that is done
is apt to consist largely of filling up
holes in the road with stone. brush,
etc, and in scraping sod, weeds, and
any other rubbish from the side
bitches and piling it up in the mid
die of the road The chances are
that after being worked" in this
manner the road is worse than il
was before.
The work should be carefully
planned ahead, and the best results
are usually obtained If only few
men are called out at any one time
to do it. The road should be given
a proper crown by using a road ma
chine or grader. and holes should be
filled with the same material as the
rest of the road If stones or other
hard material are used for filling
a hole in an earth road il makes a
bump at best The surface wears
4Inevenly. and often two or more
holes develop where there was only
one before Nothing but good earth
should ever be scraped into the mid
die of the road. All sods, weeds,
etc, should be remover entihely
from the road, and the slope of the
surface should extend to the bitches
on either side. Many miles of road
are left with a strip of weeds and
sod inside of the ditch line. so that
~ fc fr,,v
from the road surface into the ditch
es. All bitches and culverts should
be carefully cleaned out. so that
there will be nothing to obstruct the
flow of water and this applies equal
ly to the secondary drains" which
are cut on the hillsides to prevent
the surface water from running
down over the edges of cuts into the
side bitches.
The road grader is very effect
i've machine if properly used. but it
should be in charge of a skillful and
sensible operator. Cutting should
begin at the sides, and if the surface
is covered with sod and weeds the
blade should be set on the first
round in such a way that his mater
ial will be scraped into the ditch and
not on the road. 1t can then be re-
moved with the shovels. On shap-
ing up the roads the entire width of
the blade should be used, If possible, ,
and it should be set at almost right
angles with the center line of the
road, so that enough material will
be carried along to fill up the ruts
and holes. AT each round enough
material should be moved toward
the center. but it must he remem-
bered that crown of one inch to
the foot is about sufficient, and it