The only proper way of

should be scraped off a road, not drawn on it. crowning these old roads is to cut off the shoulders, and instead of drawing them to the centre, draw them outward, across the ditch if necessary.

A STONE ROAD MADE Too WIDE AND FLAT

So that vehicles use the earth sides, cutting them up and preventing surface drainage.

To draw the earth and sod from the side of the road to the centre is merely to create in the centre of the road a bed of mud that with the first wet season of spring and fall will become a perfect slough. The hard road-bed underneath prevents even ordinary drainage. The earth on top of it absorbs and holds the water until it becomes a fluid slush.

To attempt to improve these old roads by crowning them with earth and sod from the sides, and to place over this a coating of gravel or stone, is also a serious blunder. The process just described goes on, with the exception that the new metal settles until it reaches the old, hard roadbed, while the slush and mud ooze up through it. When such a method is followed ruts and mud quickly appear, and the new gravel or stone placed on to the road is very easily lost, and the durability is in any event seriously impaired.

to

With these old stone and gravel roads, the earth and sod which has accumulated to form shoulders, should always be turned outward. If drawn to the centre, whatever method is followed, it will simply become mud. Where roads have been treated in this way by this way by drawing mud the centre, no time should be lost in scraping it off, as the longer it remains, the more serious will be the injury to the road. On a large proportion of these old stone and gravel roads throughout the country, more can be done to improve their condition, by cutting off the square shoulders, thereby giving the road a proper crown, than can be accomplished by several years application of material. New material may be required on these old roads to bring them

to a proper standard, but it should not be supplied until the road has been shaped and crowned by cutting away the square shoulders at the sides, which prevent proper surface drainage.

LABOR.

The cost of roads is made up chiefly by the cost of labor, including teaming. Very little is spent on material alone. Thus grading and draining are almost wholly a matter of labor. Gravel pits cost very little-but teaming gravel, handling it in the pit, and on the road soon count up. In the same way, the cost of broken stone grows out of the cost of labor for quarrying, crushing, hauling and spreading.

Important matters to consider in this regard are:

(1) Designate certain men for certain work, and keep them at it until there is no more of that kind of work to be done.

(2) Have the work well planned in advance, and keep it going in an orderly manner.

(3) Arrange the work so that the teams will be kept going steadily, as they are expensive.

(4) The number of men at each part of the work should be so balanced that all will be kept at work.

(5) Fix the size of the wagon boxes, and the amount of gravel or stone they must hold. Designate the number of loads to constitute a day's work. (6) Use labor-saving machinery such as road-graders, rock crushers, wheeled scrapers, etc.

(7) See that every man is provided with proper tools.

To build a road cheaply means a proper direction of labor. The reason why contractors can so often do work for less than municipal corporations is because they exercise all the skill possible in directing and using labor to the best advantage. An important principle to follow in this regard is to designate certain men for certain work, and to keep each one at his own particular work until it is finished.

The number of men and teams should be so balanced that all can be kept steadily at work. Too many men and not enough teams, or too many teams and not enough men, mean that one or the other will be standing in idleness a considerable part of the time.

Teamsters should drive into a gravel pit in regular order. They should not crowd one another in a small pit, so that some few can fill their wagons with good material, while others haul sods and boulders. There are usually enough of the latter on the road without paying for teaming

more.

A day's work in hauling gravel or broken stone, should be specified by the number of loads, according to length of haul, and every load should contain a certain quantity-usually one and a quarter, or one and a half cubic yards. It takes very little more time to go from the pit to the road with a yard and a half of gravel than with only half a yard. In fact the larger load represents almost a clear gain of the difference in size of the loads. Specify the size of the wagon box, and number of loads to con stitute a day's work.

Manufacturers of roadmaking machinery are row supplying wagons with a hopper-shaped opening between the front and rear axles, made expressly for drawing gravel and broken stone, and distributing it over the

road. The opening of the hopper is controlled by a lever beside the driver. The metal can be distributed to any required depth, after a little experience, by regulating the extent to which the hopper is opened.

For screenings especially, in distributing them evenly over the stone, these wagons are particularly useful. A number of these wagons, coupled together, and drawn by a traction engine, affords one of the cheapest methods of hauling gravel or stone for a considerable distance, under certain conditions. Each wagon holds about 1 cubic yards of metal.

Labor saving machinery should be used wherever possible. This does not mean that there will be less work for men to do on the roads, but that more work can be done for the same outlay.

DRAINAGE OF ROADS.

Give up the idea that gravel and stone, without drainage will make a road. Road construction is largely a matter of good drainage. Do not waste gravel and broken stone by putting them on roads that are not properly drained. The natural soil over which the road passes must be kept strong enough to support traffic. Dry earth will do this. Wet earth will notfor wet earth is mud, soft and yielding, whether on the surface or below it. Mud below a bed of gravel is worse than mud on top of it. In considering the improvement of a road, and its drainage, the following are important: (1) Consider the main water courses crossing or adjacent to the road, which can be used as outlets, and the natural slopes of the road to these. (2) Then grade the road, and open drains at the side so that water will flow steadily to these outlets.

(3) Every side drain should have an outlet; nor should depressions be left at the side to hold water.

(4) Place culverts under the road wherever needed to provide an outlet. for the water.

(5) Crown the road well so that water will flow readily to the s'de drains.

(6) Dispose of the water in small quantities. Do not carry it in long ditches past natural outlets, to avoid making culverts.

(7) Lay tile drains to lower the water-line. In general, tile without gravel is better than gravel without tile. Tile drains are especially useful to underdiain hills where springs come to the surface.

The only road that will not be improved, by the most perfect system of drainage that can be given it, is a road of pure sand. In all other cases, every dollar put into drainage is well spent.

The drainage usually found on existing roads consists of open ditches on each side of the graded portion, with a depth of about eighteen inches. They are frequently carried through rises of ground, past natural water courses. Little attention is given to the regularity of the grade in the bottom, or to the amount of fall, as evidenced by the varying depths of stagnant water at wet seasons. The object of these drains was more to procure earth to raise the centre of the road above the water line than to lower the water. Very often they have no outlets.

A road that is built and maintained with a view to good drainage is almost certain to be a good road. If this is done, the road surface will be kept hard and smooth, and sufficiently crowned, so that water will not lie on it in depressions or ruts, but will flow immediately to open drains.

at the side. These drains will have a regular and constant fall to a free outlet. Further than this, the underflow, or subsoil water, will be removed, where necessary, by tile drainage. The method and extent of drainage must depend largely upon the character of the soil over which the rcad passes; clay, loam, gravel, sand, swampy, springs, flat, undulating, are all terms suggesting conditions that modify the plan of drainage.

A drain without an outlet is useless-or worse than useless. If there is not an outlet, the water is held in elongated ponds by the roadside, to soak into and soften the travelled roadway. This water is drawn up into the entire roadway just as a sponge will absorb water and hold it in all its pores.

Rather than spend money year after year in a useless effort to maintain the road without drainage, it will be found a measure of economy to at once provide proper outlets, even if it is necessary to carry the drain a considerable distance across private property.

A road should, in order to construct it economically, without hand labor, be such as modern machinery, especially graders, will readily form. For this reason, deep, open ditches, with sharp angles and narrow bottoms, are not now suitable; but instead, a cross-section of road should show gentle curves, the rounded surface of the road not sharply defined from the ditch. The latter should be about two feet wide in the bottom, where a wheeled scraper can work, and about eighteen inches in depth. The crowning of the road materially aids surface drainage, shedding water to the side drains. Roads should be well crowned when first constructed, as the tendency is to settle and become too flat. A well-rounded road will last much longer than one that is too low and flat.

TILE DRAINAGE.

Tile drains will do as much for roads as they will for farm land. Some roads can never be good roads until they are under-drained. Roads tiled without gravel will be better than if they are gravelled without tile. This applies to practically all roads except those on pure sand. Points of importance in this regard are:

In this way

(1) Tile drains lower the water-line and thereby make a deeper stratum of dry, and consequently solid earth underneath the road. they take the place of deep and dangerous open drains.

(2) Lay the tile at the side of the road under the bottom of the open drain, at a depth of 2 or 3 feet.

(3) A line of tile on one side of the road at a good depth will do nearly all that tile on both sides will do. If one side of the road is higher than the other, lay the tile on the high side.

(4) Lay the tile on an even grade with a constant fall to a good outlet; the fall being not less than three inches in one hundred feet.

(5) Always use tile to under-drain hills or wet spots where springs come

to the surface, running a blind drain into the heart of the spring.

(6) A three inch or four inch tile will meet most conditions, but the size must depend on the length of the drain, fall, and amount of water to be carried away. The larger tile are less apt to become stopped through uneven laying.

(7) In quicksand, surround the tile with sawdust, sods, or straw.

Tile drains are permanent. They take the place of deep open drains and cost less to maintain. Their effect is most noticeable in spring, causing the roads to dry up quickly. In this way, and throughout the year, they save the gravel or stone covering as there is less mud for it to sink into. Tile drains offer no difficulty to lay except in quicksand. In cases where the sand is troublesome, the tile may be surrounded with sawdust, sods, or straw to keep out the silt. If settlement is at all likely, boards should be laid in the bottom of the trench and firmly pressed down, and the tile laid on these. The roots of trees, particularly the willow, are apt to enter and, in time, block the tile. Where this is to be anticipated, the joints of the tile should be cemented for a distance likely to be reached by the roots.

Their location with respect to the road should be varied with circumstances. The most effective type of drainage employed is a system in which there is a tile drain on each side of the roadway underneath the open gutters, with V-shaped drains at intervals from the centre of the roadbed to the side drains. From this the scale descends to drains at the side of the roads only; then a drain at one side only, or in the centre of the road; then only an occasional drain at springy or damp points.

If municipalities cannot undertake to at once underdrain all their roads in this manner. They should place tile drains where they are evidently needed most, in low-lying sections, where water is seen to remain longest on the surface in the spring, after a heavy rain, where springs have a tendency to appear, or where the ground is found to be cold and wet during the summer.

REPAIRING ROADS.

The repair of roads is as important as construction. Roads should be maintained in good condition by never allowing them to get out of repair. Neglect to keep roads in repair, failure to repair them when repair is first needed, adds very much to the cost of roads. A good road which is not kept in repair, very quickly becomes a bad road, ard the object of the orig