264 ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



roads; and many communities are graveling a few miles of 

 road each year, thereby gradually securing a very service- 

 able system of roads. 

 Questions: 



1. What is the chief object in view in road building? 



2. Tell how a macadam road is built. 



3. What is the first problem to consider in constructing earth 

 roads? 



4. Why is a turnpike a good form of road? 



Arithmetic: 



1. If a road is 4 rods wide, how many square feet of surface are 

 there on a mile of road? 



2. If there are 30 in. of rainfall in a year, how many tons of water 

 fall on a mile of road in a year? 



(A cu. ft. of water weighs 62.42 lbs.) 



3. How many cubic yards of gravel are required to cover a mile 

 of road 12 ft. wide and 6 in. deep? 



MAINTENANCE OF ROADS 



Road Repairing. — In well settled communities the main 

 part of road work is to keep roads in repair. Repair consists 

 in fixing bridges and culverts, filling in ruts and mudholes, 

 opening old and making new side ditches, and smooth- 

 ing off and rounding up the roadbed so it will readily shed 

 water. After an earth road is well made — that is, made as 

 level as practicable and built into a turnpike with ditches 

 on either side — there is nothing so cheap and effective for 

 keeping it in repair as the split log drag. 



TTing ^R Split-Log Drag. — Every one interested in good 

 roads should know of the King split log drag. It is named 

 after Mr. D. Ward King, of Maitland, Missouri, who first 

 made known to the public the value of this excellent little 

 implement. It is made of a log ten or twelve inches through 

 and about eight feet long, split in halves. The halves are 

 fastened together by boring two-inch holes through them 

 and driving in strong stakes two and one half to three feet long, 

 just as a wood-rack bed is made, with both split surfaces 

 of the log facing the same way. If a log is not at hand, a 

 timber about three inches by eight inches may be used 

 instead. The efficiency of the drag is increased by putting 

 a strip of steel on each cutting edge as shown in Figure 118. 

 The drag then cuts better and wears much longer. It is 



