40 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sawdust, especially that produced by cutting shingles, has been used 

 with excellent results when covered with two or three inches of sand 

 to prevent fires. Ordinary sawdust mixed with planer shavings is good. 

 A covering of clay five or six inches deep is a very decided help. The- 

 clay should be covered .with two or three inches of sand. In some parts- 

 of Wisconsin goods roads have been made in sand by excavating trenches- 

 in the wheel tracks eighteen inches wide and ten inches deep, filling with 

 clay and covering with two inches of sand. The writer has built some 

 excellent roads over sand by first putting on three inches of clay well 

 rolled, covered with three inches of gravel rolled into the clay. This has> 

 formed a very hard surface which is impervious to water. 



CI.AY ROADS. 



All clay roads need thorough drainage to a depth of at least three 

 feet. The side ditches can be well supplemented with tile drains, pref- 

 erably on each side of the road bed, but one in the center can be made 

 to serve a very useful purpose, especially if filled with gravel or broken 

 stone to near the surface. The road should be kept sufficiently crowning . 

 to shed water quickly to the side ditches, but sods and turf should never 

 be scraped to the center. 



Clay roads can be greatly improved by sand or gravel top dressing. 

 Cinders and coal ashes can also be used with good results. Well drained 

 clay roads, if kept surfaced, v.ill be fairly passable most of the year, but 

 heavy teaming in wet weather will surely cut them. These ruts should 

 be smoothed down as soon as the road is partiall}^ dry. A covering of 

 marsh hay. straw, or small brush on the natural ground before the grade 

 is thrown u]) will facilitate drainage for a few years^ and thus improve 

 the road. 



MUCK ROADS. 



Muck loads cauuot hv made to sustain a heavy tratlic without sonn- 

 treatment; they should be well drained and covered with sand, clay and 

 gravel, where these materials can be obtained. Corduroy or log roads 

 should be a matter of last resort, and be built only when no kind of 

 drainage is possible. A foundation of boards laid double on two lines 

 of boards for stringers has been used with success in a very wet, un- 

 drained marsh. This raft of boards was first covered with marsh grass, 

 then with earth and afterwards with broken stone. This road was in 

 first class shape after twenty-five years of use. Such construction is not 

 troubled b}^ the rising up of logs to form bumps in the road as is invai'ia- 

 bly the case with the log filling. 



GRAVE!, ROADS. 



By far the greater number of Michigan roads will necessarily be so- 

 called "Dirt Roads"' for many years to come and when any met^alling- 

 or hardening coat is apjolied, it must in most cases, consist of gravel. 

 This State is quite generally covered with gravel deposits, thougli they 

 are usually found in small areas. There are, however, many consider- 

 able areas of flat lands where gravel can only be obtained by hauling it 

 a number of miles. In such cases the co-operation of raih-oads could 



