RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION 297 
outlay. Loggers are able, therefore, to contract with local men 
on favorable terms. 
MOVEMENT OF EARTH' 
The movement of earth for road construction, railroad grades 
and trails may be performed in various ways among which the 
following are in general use: 
(1) With pick and shovel, the earth being loosened by the 
pick and then thrown directly out of the cut. 
(2) Loosening by pick or plow and transport on wheel- 
barrows, two-wheeled dump carts or dump wagons. 
(3) Loosening by plow or by dynamite and transport on 
drag scrapers, wheeled scrapers or dump cars with horse draft. 
(4) Steam shovel, either casting the dirt on or off the grade or 
placing it in dump or fiat cars for transportation away from the 
site. 
(5) Power drag scraper, moving material from cuts or to fills. 
The first three methods are used by owners of comparatively 
simple and inexpensive outfits. Steam shovels and power drag 
scrapers are used chiefly in the West where a large amount of 
earth and rock often must be moved in making a logging railroad 
grade. 
Plowing. — Contractors usually assume that a team and driver, 
with a helper to hold the plow can loosen 25 cubic yards of fairly 
tough clay, 35 cubic yards of gravelly loam, or 50 cubic yards of 
1 Earth of various kinds increases in bulk when disturbed for removal, as 
shown in the following table: 
Character of material 
Earth, freshly loosened 
Clean sand and gravel 
Loam, loamy sand and gravel 
Dense clay, dense mixtures of gravel and clay. 
Unusually dense gravel and clay banks 
Increase in 
bulk 
Per cent. 
14 to 50 
14 to 15 
20 
33 to 50 
50 
Shrinkage in volume of embankments is dependent on the method used to 
compact them. Loose earth with rainfall as the only compacting element 
will be about 8 per cent above normal at the expiration of a year. Earth 
compacted with two- wheeled carts or scrapers occupies from 5 to 10 per cent 
less space than it did "in place" and will shrink slightly more during the 
next few years. 
