AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING 261 



as possible. For this reason it is right to tax all the people 

 in the county, state or in the United States, for the pur- 

 pose of building good roads, because all the people are 

 benefited by them. 



Roads are nearly always four rods wide. This width 

 consumes a great deal of land. A strip two rods wide is 

 taken off all land adjoining a highway. Roads are made 

 this width to give ample room for turning and to allow 

 space for ditches, cuts and fills. 

 Questions: 



1. In what way do poor roads affect the price of farm products? 



2. Why is it right for those living in town to pay part of the 

 expense of building good roads? 



3. Explain how poor roads may be more expensive than good 



4. What are some of the advantages of good roads besides mak- 

 ing it easier to market farm products? 

 Arithmetic: 



1. If ten teams pass over a road each day, how many trips will 

 be made over the road in a year? 



2. If 3,650 trips are made over a road each year, and there 

 would be a saving of 2c. per mile each trip, if the roads were good, 

 how much would be saved per mile per year? 



3. If $1,000 per mile were invested in good roads, and $73 were 

 saved annually thereby, how long would it take to pay the $1,000, 

 drawing 4% interest by applying the $73 saved annually? 



ROAD CONSTRUCTION 



The object in view in road building is to make the road 

 bed as near level as possible, that is, to avoid hills; also to 

 make and keep it as firm and unyielding as possible with 

 the material and labor at hand. It is sometimes no farther 

 around a hill than over it, and in such cases it is much more 

 practical to go around. A pail handle is often used to illustrate 

 this point. When standing erect the handle is the same length 

 as when lying down, but a road, as represented by the erect 

 handle, would be much harder to travel than a road repre- 

 sented by the handle lying flat. 



Stone Roads. — In the older countries, and in the older 

 and more thickly populated portions of this country, a large 

 portion of the roads are built of some hard material, as 

 stone. A very common form of stone road is called ma- 

 cadam. It is named after the man who invented this 

 process of road building. To build a macadam road, the 



