Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — KEEPING ROADS GOOD. [ARTICLE]

KEEPING ROADS GOOD.

Seventeen Rules Recommended by an English Association. The Road Improvement Association, of London, Eng., recently issued a circular containing seventeen rules for the guidance of roadmasters in keeping macadam and telford roads in proper repair, as follows: 1. Never allow a hollow, a rut, or a puddle to remain on a road, but fill it up at once with chips from the stone heap. 2. Always use chips for patching and for all repairs during the summer season. 3. Never put fresh stones on the road if. by cross-picking and a thorough use of the rake, the surface can be made smooth, and kept at the proper strength and section. 4. Remember that the rake is the most useful tool in your collection, and it should be kept at hand the whole year round. 5. Do not spread large patches of stone over the whole width of the road, but coat the middle or horse track first, and when this has worn in coat each of the sides in turn. 6. In moderately dry weather and on hard roads always pick up the old surface into ridges six inches 'apart, and remove all large and projecting stones before applying a new coating. 7. Never spread stones more than one stone deep, but add a second layer when the first has worn in if one coat be not enough. 8. Never shoot stones upon the road and crack them where they lie, or a smooth surface will be out of the question. 9. Never put a stone upon the road for repairing purposes that will not freely pass in every direction through a two-inch ring, and remember that smaller stones should be used for patching and for all slight repairs.

10. Recollect that hard stones should be broken to finer guage than soft, but that the two-inch gauge is the largest that should be used under any circumstances where no steam roller is employed. 11. Never be without your ring guage; remember Macadam’s advice, that any stone you can not easily put into your mouth should be broken smaller. 12. Use chips, if possible, for binding newly-laid stones together, and remember that road sweepings, horse droppings, soda or grass and other rubbish when used for this purpose, will ruin the best road ever constructed. 13. Remember that water-worn or rounded stones should never be used upon steep gradients, or they Svill fail to bind together. 14. Never allow dust or mud to lie pn the surface of the roads, for either of these will double the cost of maintenance.

15. Recollect that ilust becomes mud at the first shower, and that mud forms a wet blanket which will keep the road in a filthy condition for weeks at a time, instead of allowing it to dry in a few hours. IG. Remember that the middle of the road should always be a little higher than the sides, so that rain may run into the side gutters at once. 17. Never allow the water tables, gutters and ditches to clog up, but keep them clear the whole year through. Every roadmaster and supervisor should cut these rules out and paste them in his everyday hat. To make a good'road is one thing and to keep it in good repair is quite another thing. The finest roads in Europe are the result of a splendid repair system where every defect is promptly corrected before it has time to cause serious damages to the highway.