-386 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



The steam road roller is a costly machine, weighing 20 to 50 tons, its great 

 weight being sufficient to pack a road so thoroughly that it will remain hard 

 for a long time after the roller has passed over it. The cost of such a 

 machine at present is too great to permit its use except in the larger cities. 



The road machine, of which there are several kinds, is a very efficient 

 leveling scraper. It is usually adjustable, so that it will level the surface 

 of the earth, and carry the loosened earth either to the side or center of the 

 road. It sometimes has a plow attachment, a novel trimming device, an 

 ordinary scraper and often a roller. 



The older road machinery, the common scraper and the plow, need no 

 description. The plow is a valuable tool, but it is used too much. I can- 

 not caution you too much against too frequent plowing of your roads. Do 

 not disturb the surface of a road if once hardened and packed, unless abso- 

 lutely necessary. Holes and ruts can often be nicely remedied by simply 

 scraping new eafth from the sides, or by passing over with the leveling 

 scraper. Every road district should have not only a common scraper, but it 

 should have a leveling scraper ; this last instrument is made by setting a 

 tongue obliquely into a heavy plank about 12 feet long, which is shod with 

 a steel plate (an old saw) on its front face and at the bottom. This last 

 implement, rightly used, is a power in the hands of an efficient road over- 

 seer. 



OPEST DITCHES. 



Road drainage with the open ditch is practiced only to a limited extent, 

 and usually when practiced it is used in connection with the turnpike. In 

 very wet marshes the open ditch is a necessity at first, but as it is liable to 

 be rilled and not very efficient at best, it is not good policy to depend on it 

 longer than necessary. 



UNDER-DRAINS. 



The use of the under-drain is principally to remove the water from the 

 subsoil, consequently to be of much value for road drainage it must be com- 

 bined with a system of turnpiking. Water does not readily pass through 

 some soils when packed or puddled, so that if our roads are built in a convex 

 form the water will pass to the sides, where it may be allowed to enter the 

 under-drains. In constructing the road I would put under each side ditch 

 formed in turnpiking an under-drain of three-inch tile, or one under the center 

 of the road of four-inch tile. The cost of a three-inch tile drain need not 

 much exceed 50 cents per rod. It may be necessary in some stiff clays to 

 cover over the drains with gravel or some porous soil, but usually this will be 

 necessary only for a few feet in each section of seven or eight rods in length. 



I am fully convinced that a well drained road, even on common soil, 

 would be in many respects a good road, and it is certainly true that a wet 

 foundation will not allow a good road to be formed with any material what- 

 ever. In the process of constructing improved roads we are not ready to 

 apply the road metal — as the covering is called — until our road is in a proper 

 condition to allow the water to pass off. After a properly drained founda- 

 tion is made, our next step is to apply the road metal, or covering, in other 

 words to form the road surface. 



