Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 193, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1916 — Uses Brains Along With His Road Work. [ARTICLE]

Uses Brains Along With His Road Work.

Morocco Courier. There is a whole lot of stuff being said and written these days about good roads, how to make them and how to maintain them. Some claim that rock roads are the only kind to put down, provided they are put down right, while others insist that gravel roads are the thing. But there is one thing that all will agree on, and that is that any road must be properly drained. Water will destroy any road, no matter what the material, if it is not properly drained off. The first requisite, then, for good roads, is to see that they have proper drainage, for no matter how deep the material may be laid, if the under surface is not taken care of heavy loads will go through at certain seasons of the year, and once through, the stability of the road is ended. County Superintendent of Roads Elmer Skinner is fully aiware of the importance of all of the above and with his years of experience in road work in his various capacities as a township and county officer is well qualified for the work and is working out and experimenting on road building which will bring results in the future beneficial to the roads. Mr. Skinner is now making some experiments in regard to the best quality of stone to use. On the road on the east side of Mrs. John Kennedy’s home he has placed stone from the Kentland quarries. On the road running east from Henry Corbin’s corner to the Duffy elevator he has used Thornton stone. On the road east of town running to Mt. Ayr he has Ihid a half mile each of Kentland stone and Thornton stone, these two pieces being joined and will both receive the same amount of wear and the experiments are well worth watching. z

Another experiment conducted by Mr. Skinner was that of placing a carload of stone dust on the Short piece of road leading from the New York Central depot and connecting with Morocco’s main street. Mr. Skinner got the dust free of charge of the quarry and was only out the freight and cost of unloading. The road after having been used only about three weeks is very smooth and is as hard as a cement pavement and gives evidence of making a good road- However, time will tell, but it looks now as though fine stone was the proper top dressing for a road.