70 BULLETIN 407, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTURE. 
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 corn. 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 well 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 BUCKLTN, KANS. 
This road was inspected December 20, 1915, and its condition found 
to be as follows: 
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 surface. 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. 
