FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



37 



GOOD ROADS— ROAD IMPROVEMENT. 



F. F. ROGERS, PORT HURON, MICH. 



The materials of which the roads are to be built in any farming com- 

 munity must for the most part be the materials close at' hand, common 

 earth, sand, clay, gravel and such judicious combinations of these mate- 

 rials as experience has taught to be best. 



No matter how the road is to be finished or what material it is made of,, 

 there are three requirements alike common and necessary for all kinds 

 of roads. They are — first, location; second, grade, including cross-section 

 or shape; third, drainage. 



LOCATION. 



As to the location we probably shall never have much leeway in this 

 State, for it seems to be a law^, as unchangeable as that of the ''Medes and 

 Persians," that we must follow the section line over the hills and through 

 hollows and swamps at enormous expense to the public, even if thereby 

 it is forever impossible to make the road respectably passable. Main 

 roads should be located as directly as possible between objective points, 

 with as much regard to easy grades as a railroad. It is often no farther 

 around a hill than over it. A few dollars spent in purchasing right of 

 way for a good road is usually more advantageous than as many hundred 

 dollars spent in digging down hills and filling up hollows. 



GRADE. 



It is clearly understood by all that loads are always limited to those 

 which one team can haul over the worst part of the road, unless there is 

 some way to increase the motive power at that point. Grades very 

 rapidly diminish the loads which can be drawn on a level road. Thus, 

 if the road be in such condition that one horse can draw 2,000 pounds on 

 a level, he can move but about half that amount up a hill that rises one 

 foot in 25 and but about one-fourth that amount up a hill that rises one 

 foot in ten. This will be more fully shown by the following table from 

 Potter's "Good Roads/' showing per cent of full load that can be drawn 

 up various grades on four classes of roads: 



If the finished road is to be a first-class gravel or macadam road, all 

 grades should, if possible, be reduced to one foot in 20. It is generally 



