| Show I The Earth Road as Foundation for Further t m By Logan Walter Page Director of Department of Good D. C- 1 1 ten especially for the Good Roads f There are some things which grow I 1 I venerable with For are the Pyramids of coming through the centuries of the nub 1 compel our admiration and won-f C But the earth road in its tf is even older than the Pyra- aids and still it compels no such It is replete with legends a jid traditions as rich as any that clus-ter about the banks of the Nile and ret it is the most despised of all the works of Curses and dons are heaped upon it daily and nothing too mean can be said about flirt And yet we think our earth roads f deserve something In the past they have served not but II for they have always been 1 with Even today over ninety per tent of our public roads are earth And what is a very large percentage of these roads will 1 1 remain as earth roads for a long time yet to But this need cause a no The earth road is not Dot I Bad Roads Our The fault that they are so bad lies rather than with the For centuries it has been customary to neglect and abuse our earth roads and then revile them because they were The real wonder is that they are not The sooner we change our attitude toward our earth roads and realize their real value the better for Our earth roads can not be made to take the place of macadam or but with proper construction and adequate maintenance they in be so much improved that we will hardly recognize them as the same And this can be accomplished without any great outlay of Good earth roads are within the financial means of nearly every in the The question is not but will we have better earth We have lived with our earth roads in their worst state for so long that we have almost come to look upon them as something impossible of often the opinion is quite general throughout a community that it is useless to try to do anything to improve our earth This is a great mistake and has a tendency to retard all road Earth Roads the for Permanent The fact we should learn is that with a comparatively small outlay we ican have good earth roads and without any jeopardy to further improvements and still better roads such as gravel or In fact a good earth road is the stepping stone to a hard The earth road is the foundation for all future With proper plans for the future the earth road may be constructed at Maintenance A comparatively small annual outlay for maintenance will then serve to keep it in shape until funds are available for further improvements with a hard No money is lost or wasted by building good earth If proper plans are prepared for future improvements and adhered every dollar expended in construction will count toward the completed A full realization of these facts will make it possible for each community to step by work into a of splendid Since the earth road is the real foundation for all further road improvement it may be well to set down a few of the principles governing its construction and One of the most frequent faults with our present earth roads is that they were never really located or laid but like just To make matters still some states designate by statue the section lines as the proper location for public The result is that but few of our earth roads are located where they should Grades are all too often unnecessarily drainage is poor or entirely lacking and streams are seldom crossed at the most favorable bridge To relocate these roads entirely or even to a large part is out of the To a large extent the general location of the present roads must be maintained because of the farm improvements which have been made along But wonderful improvements can often be made by modifying the location of short sections here and Instead of going over a steep hill it is often feasible to go around it on a much easier with but little added Places difficult of drainage can often be avoided by a gentle But all these are in the nature of permanent improvements and should be carefully planned in order that they may meet the needs of the With a little care and forethought these improvements in location can be made so as to serve not only for the earth road so long as it remains as but for any future improvements with a hard become not temporary but a real step toward the realization of hard Maintenance But comparatively few of our earth roads have ever been dignified by any improvement which could be termed To expect a good earth road where none has ever been is very much like expecting a harvest from ground that has never been The earth road must be built just as a macadam or gravel road must be and as much skill and experience is required to secure the best results for the money Road The first requisite in road construction is of must be modified to suit the conditions of soil and Where the soil is heavy and retentive every care must be taken to get rid of the water quickly and For this purpose the roadway should be raised 18 to 30 inches above the side ditches and well crowned so that the water will flow freely to the The side ditches should be of ample size and provided with sufficient fall to properly care for the heaviest To prevent the easy ingress of water into the body of the road the roadway should be built up in layers not to exceed six inches in each layer thoroughly consolidated with a heavy All material subject to such as or weeds and vegetable mold must be carefully The aim must always be to build a roadway as solid and as nearly impervious to moisture as Water from whatever surface or under must be gotten rid for except in very arid regions water is the great enemy to our heavy soil soils or ex In sandy and very light arid the above tice must be somewhat band to remain at all firm under requires either some cementing material bind and hold the such as clay to grains or else sufficient so that the surface tension of the capillary water performs the same If clay or other cementing substance can not be had to treat the then the aim in construction must be to conserve the moisture as much as possible and keep the road from drying The crown be the roadway but little the side ditches yet of sufficient size to care for the storm The extremely fine and light volcanic ash and similar soils are even more difficult to treat in an arid as in the sand the crown must be low and the moisture retained as much as The addition of sage cane pumice or other fibrous material to the surface will be of considerable temporary But no road will long endure without The price of good roads is eternal vigilance in This more true of earth roads than any The rains and melting snow soften the surface more or less and passing traffic forms ruts and if allowed to ill retain more water at the next rain and more mud and deeper ruts and larger depressions will be It is that the effect in maintaining our heavy soil roads must be to keep the drainage For this purpose there is nothing which equals the split log drag or other similar Log The principle of the action of the drag is simply The clays and most heavy soils will puddle and set very hard if worked when The drag is essentially a After each rain and while the earth is still plastic but not sticky enough to adhere to the one or two trips up and down the road is made with the Only a small amount of earth is just enough to fill the ruts and depressions and smooth over the surface with a thin layer of plastic clay which packs very hard under passing traffic and leaves the road smooth and hard so that the next rain instead of finding ruts and depressions in which to collect runs leaving the surface little The time and labor involved in keeping an earth road properly dragged is Five dollars per year seems to be about the average cost in the middle Time to Work on The essential requisite is that the work shall be done at the time it is This is the point which seems hardest to impress on the average man The little attention the earth road needs must be given promptly and at the proper time if we wish to secure any We have become so accustomed to the old habit of doing our road work at our convenience in the spring or fall of the year that we can hardly force ourselves to anything else should be evl H But one thing is that we will never bl W V like the earth roads We can we adopt a system of The amount of work 14 at the time is usually small W imperative that it be done tL iri not only will the amount hu the roads will be bad for U of period Where the traffic is not too l our earth hen 06 and rightly maintained general be kept fairly the year and passable at all r t When the traffic is L earth road must give way to A surface such as But even then possible earth road is a great nin it gives the best founds for the hard Joy j. The daily newspapers tell us i many a tragic in and we are sometimes the temerity of the pleasure Los Angeles Paulhan navigated tk empyrean in his fragile craft at an i of If that is too convenient a pastime for the joy nj they can find a novel sensation bi taking a hand car without three or four men with four the early morning and ing with merry speed on a they meet a mighty freight train than-dering toward them out of a fog ii within hailing In R. v. C. five of the occupants d the hand car were But under the drastic provisions of the Tenna see statute the railroad company n held liable for the death of these the jury being satisfied tk the men on the locomotive were n sufficiently watchful to observe the hand car in time to have avoided cot |
