FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 49 



filling up. The sides of the ditches are best built with an angle of 

 about 45 degrees on either side. 



In case the road is built upon a side grade, the natural flow of the 

 subsoil as well as surface water is from the higher slope, and it is gener- 

 ally advisable to construct frequent cross drains or culverts under the 

 road bed, to carry the water to the lower side and be sure that these 

 culverts shall be large enough to meet the demand for the heaviest rain- 

 fall. See to it that they are kept free and open at all times. 



Again, in long, level stretches of road, it is often money well invested, 

 to place under the road bed one and in some conditions of soil two 

 lineal tile drains, frequently carrying the surplus water to the side 

 ditches by cross drains. In doing this work we are frequently obliged 

 to change the direction of the flow by elevating and depressing the 

 drain in stretches of from one to two hundred feet and carrying the 

 water to the ditches from the lowest intersection of the drains, being 

 careful to have the outlets above the normal surface of the water flow- 

 ing through the ditches. 



To work clay fields while in a wet condition makes the soil hard, 

 lumpy, and out of mechanical condition for successful crop production, 

 but this is just the exact condition we want to get for our road beds, and, 

 the more puddling and cultivating we do on the clay road bed in the 

 spring, the harder and smoother can the surface be made for the dry 

 months to follow. Working along these lines will rapidly burn out and 

 exhaust all the humus from the ground. This, too, is a desired object 

 in making a clay road, to get rid of all the moisture-holding properties 

 the soil contains. 



In the repair of roads a bad practice usually prevails and too little 

 attention is given to the material to be used upon the surface of the 

 road, oftentimes the silt and grass from the ditches are scraped into 

 the center of the road, 'a constant menace to the quality of the road so 

 long as it remains, as it is simply a sponge to soak up all the water 

 which falls upon it. Better far to throw it out upon the land on either 

 side; generally the land would be improved by it, but the roads are not. 



Where more material is needed, good practice would suggest the use 

 of a deep subsoil from which the surface soil had all been removed, a 

 somewhat greater expense it may be at the time, but in the end a large 

 saving. 



A mistake often made in the repair of ruts in clay roads, consists in 

 filling of such places with stone large or small, as this practice but ag- 

 gravates the trouble. We want in a clay road an evenness of material 

 so as to avoid rutting and holes by the weight of the load being thrown 

 first upon one wheel then upon the other, a filling of stone or like mate- 

 rial in a mud hole simply makes the best possible condition for a deeper 

 hole on either side of the original. 



When a road is once constructed properly, never disturb it, except to- 

 keep the surface smooth and a proper form of turnpike, with an uninter- 

 rupted flow through the ditches and drains. . 

 7 



