38 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



a good road with the entire twelve inches of gravel ; f our 

 inches of it being ordinary pit gravel, and then two four- 

 inch layers of double-screened gravel, each in turn well 

 rolled. A better gravel road than this is used in many 

 private and public places, where the bottom is con- 

 structed of five or six inches of broken stone of equal 

 size, placed regularly by hand and bedded and rolled, 

 with the addition on top of four or five inches of prop- 

 erly screened gravel, also well rolled. The presence of 

 this stone at the bottom makes better drainage for the 

 road than if it all consisted of gravel. In spring, more- 

 over, when the frost is coming out of the ground, the 

 clay is apt to work to the surface and create more mud 

 where the stone foundation is lacking than where it is 

 not. 



It may seem to require a great deal of work to build a 

 road of this kind, but, when done, it is without question 

 superior to the ordinary gravel road, which is made by 

 heaping unscreened gravel three to four inches deep over 

 a width of eight or nine feet, with perhaps six or ten 

 inches under the wheels. There is sure to be plenty of 

 mud and ruts on such roads, and, consequently, continual 

 need of repair. To make sure of a thoroughly solid 

 foundation of stone, care should be taken to keep the 

 fragments of nearly equal size, and to chink in between 

 them slivers or spalls. 



Mention has been made on several occasions of the 

 importance of rolling a road at various stages of its con- 

 struction, and it needs explaining, in connection with the 

 rolling, that at first water should be sprinkled in compar- 

 atively small quantities on the surface, increasing the 

 amount gradually, until the finishing strokes are given in 

 floating water rising in a small wave before the roller. 



