FORM AND MATERIALS FOR ROADS. 67 



ing through deep ruts, to say nothing of the breaking 

 of harness and wagons by the excessive exertions of the 

 team. 



FORM AND MATERIALS FOR ROADS. 



The depth of the mud in common roads is often un- 

 necessarily great, in consequence of heaping together 

 with the plow and scraper the soft top-soil for the raised 



^^^^^' " 



Section of badly formed road. 



carriage-way. When heavy rains fall, this forms a deep 



bed of mud, into which the wheels work their way, and 



cause extreme labor to the team. A much better way is 



to scrape off and cart away into the fields adjoining all 



the soft, rich, upper surface, and then to form the harder 



subsoil into a slightly rounded carriage-way, with a ditch 



on each side. Such roads as this have a very hard and 



firm foundation, and they have been found not to cut up 



Fig. 71. 



Section of tcdl formed road. 

 into ruts, nor to form much mud, even in the wettest sea- 

 sons. On this hard foundation six inches of gravel will 

 endure longer and form a better surface than twelve 

 inches on a raised " turnpike" of soft soil and mud. 



It frequently happens that the form of the surface in- 

 creases the quantity of mud in a road, by not allowing 

 the water to flow off freely. The earth is heaped up in a 

 high ridge, but having little slope on the top (fig. 70), 

 where the water lodges, and ruts are formed, the only dry 

 portions being on the brink of the ditches, where the 

 water can escape. Instead of this form, there should be a 

 gradual inclination from the centre to the ditches, as 

 shown in fig. 71. This inclination should not exceed 1 



