Show HINTS ON ROAD WORK Z U S OFFICE OF PUBLIC ROADS TELLS HOW TO MAKE AND MAINTAIN A MODEL EARTH ROAD if GIVES awes PRACTICAL THE PLOW THE DRAG SCRAPER THE ROAD GRADER AND THE SPLIT LOG DRAG ARE THE CONSTANT FRIENDS OP OF THE ROAD OVERSEER while american road builders are as capable of construct ing good roads as those of any country of the old world they have eliav e not been as loyally ally supported as the men of thase countries in maintaining the highways after completion and the deplorable state of many hund hundred red thousand miles of road is thus accounted for courty county and township officials may at the outset stand tho the expense of having baving a road built but they strenuously object when asked to provide funds to lo rebuild the road that has been alf allowed oved to go to ruin it is important that farmers learn of the bone benefits fils to be derived from good earth roads that county boards be impressed with the need of the proper maintenance of the same and that road builders and overseers learn how best tp care ar i e for the fhe roads in their c charge harg e I 1 the and p powerful powerful enemies of earth roads are water and narrow tires and the con slant effort of the men in charge of the roads roade should be to guard against their destructive effects and remedy all damage as quickly as possible the simple im implements ts which have been found to be of greatest assistance in this work are the th plow eplow the drag scraper the wheel scraper the road grader and the splitlog split log drag with a sandy soil and a subsoil of clay or clay and gravel deep plowing so as to raise and mix the clay with the surface soil and sand will prove beneficial the combination co forms a sand clay road at a trifling expense on the other hand band if the road be enair entirely elar of s sand and a mistake will be aha made i de if it is is plowed unless clay an be added such plowing would merely deepen the sand and at tile the same time break up the small amount of hard surface m material aderial which may have formed if the subsoil is if clay and the surface se scant ant iu in sand gravel or plo plowing wing should not be resor resorted tod to as it would result iu in a clay surface rather than one of bf sand or cr grav gravel el A road foreman must know not only what to plow and W mi t 1 not 0 f to io 0 alow 1 0 w b but ii t b how 0 w a and ia f when to plow if tile the road is of r f the kind which ac according cord ingAo to the ibe above instructions should b be plowed ovet over its whole width the best method isid is to run ran the first furrow in the middle of the ro road acl and work out to lo the sides thus 4 i forming a crown results from j such plow plowing g are arp greatest otest in ill the J spring pring qi or early summer in air ditches A a plow can be used V to good nd advantage vantAge but should b be e followed by a scraper or J 0 grader ty rarer to moke make wide dee deep ditches no nothing lhing 9 better than the av f ordinary drag scraper has yet f i leen devial devis sd sl for juuls u r feet or in making 11 fills it is especially serviceable it is i a mistake ho however to attempt i 3 to handle I 1 lent haul material wit with this scraper as the wheel fc craper is better adapted t to 0 such work for hauls of more i than feet a wagon should af be used the e machine most generally i uselin used in road work work is the grader or road machine this machine is especially useful in JA J smoot smoothing bin g and ct crowning owning 6 the 1 roaland roa dand in opening dite ditches libs 4 S A clay subsoil tinder a thin s S ji i coating of soil should not be SA disturbed with a grader it is also a mistake to use a grader ft v y indiscriminately indiscriminately Y and to pulli pular material materi al from dit ditches che s upon a sand clay road not i indre n fre y turf soil and silt from 1 ditch bottoms are piled in the middle of the road in a ridge making mud holes a certainty it t is is in in using a grad er to avoid up tile the road too much at one time A road gradually built up by frequent I 1 use of the grader will last better than if completed at one operation the foreman frequently thinks his road must be high in the first instance he piles up material ma Aerial from ten inches to a foot in depth only to learn viall the arrival of the first rain that lie he has furnished the material for as many inches of mud AM al material should be brought up in thin layers each la layer y er well and firmly packed by roller or tra traffic before the next is added A common mistake is to crown too high with the road machine on a narrow road the split log drag should be used to fill in ruts andi and smooth the road when not too badly washed the drag possesses great merit and is so simple in construction and operation that every farmer should have one A special article will be published later i I 1 telling how to make and use the ai drag A |