70 BULLETIN 407, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture bulletins Nos. 105 and 257. The 

 reports for the year 1915 are subjoined. 



These roads are maintained by the highway officials of the respec- 

 tive counties in which they are located. They are subject to heavy 

 seasonal traffic, due to the marketing of cereal crops. The usual load 

 is about 80 bushels of wheat or shelled corn hauled in narrow-tired 

 wagons. Loads of 100 bushels are not infrequent. 



EXPERIMENT AT GARDEN CITY, KANS. 



This road was inspected December 20, 1915. There had been no 

 rainfall in more than 2 months, during which time the roadway was 

 subjected to much heavy horse-drawn traffic, due to the marketing 

 of wheat and com. This had developed depressions from 2 feet to 

 4 feet square in the middle half of the road surface at intervals of 

 from 150 feet to 300 feet. The depressions were from 2 inches to 4 

 inches deep. Where free from holes, the road is well crowned. 



The road has been maintained by filling depressions with gypsum 

 clay and by dragging with a 3-bladed steel drag after each rain. 

 The dragging had been done approximately twice a month up to the 

 time of the protracted drought above mentioned. As a consequence 

 the ditches are open, the shoulders are weU shaped, the edges of the 

 sand-clay surface are protected from erosion, and the entire roadway 

 has a neat and well-kept appearance. 



EXPERIMENT AT BUCKLIN, KANS. 



This road was inspected December 20, 1915, and its condition found 

 to be as f oUows : 



Beginning at the southern end of the section for the first one-third 

 of a mile the cross section was flat and two wide, shallow ruts had 

 formed. There were no places where the sand-clay mixture had 

 broken through, but several gave evidence of weakening under the 

 heavy hauling due to marketing the cereal crops. 



In the next one-third of a mile the road is in poor condition. Deep 

 ruts have developed throughout this entire distance and in several 

 places have worked through the sand-clay sxu^ace. The cross sec- 

 tion is flat and ridges which obstruct lateral drainage have formed 

 along the outside edge of the sand-clay surface. The condition of this 

 section is so unsatisfactory that traffic avoids it by going outside the 

 ditch lines. 



The remainder of the road, approximately one-third mile, is in 

 fair condition. It has sufficient crown to shed water, the ditches 

 are open, and only a few depressions have formed. The holes in 

 the approach to the south end of the bridge over the Arkansas River, 

 which were reported in November, 1914, had been filled with new 

 material. 



