The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 3, 1920, Page 8

Making and Keepinga Good Dirt Road - Easy Grades a Prime Requisite—Intelligent Use of Road Drag Will Work Wonders Establishment of BY ORIN CROOKER T IS a mistake to assume—just be- cause the roads of any given com- munity are of the earth or dirt va- riety—that it is necessary to get along with makeshift highways. It is possible to have good dirt roads if a community .is willing to ‘do the work necessary to attain this end. Naturally a dirt road is not to be considered ‘in the same class with the more per- manent types of highway, such as gravel, brick or concrete. But where public sentiment has not reached the “hard road stage,” or where insuffi- cient funds are available for hard road construc- tion;it should be possible at least to have dirt roads that are of more service than it is usual, perhaps, to find. The township or the county owes every man as good a road as conditions will permit. The dirt road, being the least permanent form of highway construction, needs, naturally, the most vigilant oversight to keep it in serviceable condi- tion. The trouble, however, with a great deal of the work done on such roads is that it is of the makeshift variety. Nowhere, ; perhaps, do makeshift results attend makeshift efforts with any greater degree of certain- ty than in road work. Much of such work is really a waste of time and money so far as actual bettermen* is concerned. Yet it is possible with understanding care to have dirt roads that will ren- der the maximum service of which such roads are capable. CONSTANT CARE ALWAYS COUNTS How true this is was brought home most forcibly to the writer a year ago. Iowa is a state possessing but comparatively little hard road. No one, howgver, can travel a few hundred miles over the highways of this state without being impress- ed with the fact that its dirt roads are far superior, for instance, to those of Illinois, its next neighbor on the east. . One doesn’t need to inquire the reason. It is only too evident wherever one goes. It is simply that a real effort is made in most cases to keep these dirt roads in the best pos- sible condition and in this way secure from them the maximum possible service. Never before had the writer realized how much improvement can be wrought in roads of this style through the elimination and reduction of grades, together with a general resurfacing and leveling of the roadbed. It is one of the first principles of road construction that a satisfactory highway can not be maintained on a steep hill. Iowa, even though it is a prairie state, has more . than its share of ups and downs—a fact which makes its road problem unusually difficult. This situation has been met in many cases by cutting down the grades, or by relocating the roads, which sometimes can be done at less expense than the cutting away of a hill. Even then it has not been possible in very many instances, of course, to reduce grades to a 6 per cent rise, which highway engineers aim not to exceed if possible. The effect, however, has been to greatly improve the roads as a whole, This work we found being done both by teams and ex- cavating machines—some of the latter being huge contraptions that scoop up the earth and deliver it - into wagons drawn up alongside as fast as the wagons can get into position, as is shown in the accompanying picture. : Grading of earth roads with some sort of ma- chine is advisable every two or three years at the outside. Between gradings the drag should be de- pended on for the repeated surfacings so necessary in order to secure maximum service from such ‘highways. The foreman of-a road.crew told the writer his method of working the roads under his charge. “I find it necessary first of all,” he stated, “to get the roadbed recentered. In two or three years a road—that is the driving track—will work some- “what to one side or the other of the true center. If there are low spots here and there new tracks are bound to be worn. Some of them at times even go into the ditches. “Qur first business, then, is to get a new center and stake it out. Following this we drive offset stakes at each side to mark the limit of plowing. As a rule these two lines of stakes will be about 24 feet apart. We next plow a six-foot strip down each side, turning the dirt in toward the road cen- ter. The 12-foot center strip we do not plow, of course, as it is not advisable to loosen it up. ‘We want as firm an underfooting right there as is possible. “After the plowing is done we pull the dirt in toward the center with the road machine and shape the road with a crown of 10 or 12 inches. Before firming the roadbed with the roller I find it a good plan to harrow out the sod, weeds and roots which have. been brought in from each side. If left, This road machine does rapid-fire excavation work in cutting down grades, scooping up the earth and delivering it to wagons which haul it away to fill up the hollows. these will prove a future ,annoyance and serve to keep the road from packing uniformly. With the road crowned and shaped we put the roller on it. “If work such as this is done early in the season summer traffic will pack the road well before win- ter sets in. This has always seemed to me quite essential. A road that is good and firm at the be- 4 ginning of the winter will come through the follow- ing spring in far better shape than one that is soft and loose. This is one common cause of failure in road work. Much of it is done so late in the summer or in the fall that winter finds it still soft. When the frost goes out in the spring it becomes well nigh impassable at times and by early summer it ‘has been worked all out of shape again. Such a road will give trouble every time it rains. Much of this is possible to eliminate by doing road work early in the season.” & USE DRAG AFTER EACH RAIN FOR BEST RESULTS For maintaining properly an earth road between gradings the drag must be used intelligently. Its use should be begun on the new road directly after the first rain and continued at each opportune time thereafter. Not every one knows just the very best moment to use this most beneficial implement. It is a case where experience is the best teacher, for some roads will need the drag almost as soon as the sun comes out after a rain; others need to be left until several hours after- wards, or perhaps until the next day. Generally speaking, how- ever, the road should be still wet but not wet enough for the earth to cling to the drag. Of course a dry road should never be dragged. To do so gives evidence of a lack of understanding of the princi- ple on which the drag oper- ates. With the road just in the right condition, so far as wetness 1is. concerned, the - drag forces the mud into all the hollows and ruts, squeezes out the water held in them and produces a smooth sur- face which soon dries. The drag should be set at an angle of about 45 degrees. This will work the dirt, little by little, to the center of the maintained and improved. Repeated’ dragging of a road insures-.that it will be passable at all times. Even in dry weather it will “ride easier” than one that has not received such treat- ment. However, to obtain results that are satis- factory the dragging must be maintained without any let up. A little dragging now and then ac- coplplishes but little in the way of really bene- ficial results. Regular dragging at the right time, on the other hand, accomplishes wonders. 4 Some Solid Facts About Liquid Manure =|HE need of more care in conserving the liquid content of manure must be evident to any one who will consider well the following facts. A dairy cow of average weight voids about 70 pounds of excrement each 24 hours. Of this 14 pounds is composed of solids and the other 56 pounds consists of liquids. Thus 80 per cent of the total excrement by weight is liquid. This liquid content of manure is more easily lost than the solid portion and is the first to undergo depreciation in a chemical way. It gets away _through stable floors, where these are not of tight boards or concrete. It leaches out of the manure when it is exposed to the rain. It is also the first portion of the waste to suffer loss through the fer- mentation which occurs when a pile of manure un- dergoes heating. s The liquid portion of the manure is more valuable than the solid portion. It ‘carries two-thirds of the nitrogen and four-fifths of the potassium held in the total excrement. Further- more, this plant food is in solution and therefore entirely available for plant uses. The solid con- tent of manure, on the other hand, must first undergo decay before its plant food reaches a PAGE EIGHT * form in which the plants can make use of it. With these facts before one, it is easily to be seen that more care is essential in the handling of barn waste. ; 3 . 1. Precautions should be taken, where the stable is not floored with concrete, to prevent the escape of liquids through leaky floors. 4 2. Sufficient litter should be used to fully absorb the liquids. j 3 3. Leaching should be prevented by protecting the manure from the rain. o 4. Fleating should be eliminated as a source of detenorat.ion by keeping the waste moderately damp while it is being held awaiting disposal. Best of all, of course, is the early distribution of manure after it is produced by means of a spregder. If spread in-a thin layer on the fields nothing will be lost when its plant food is washed out by the rain. The thin application of the waste ma}:es heating impossible. The only circumstance which makes such a distribution unwise is where the waste must lie for considerable time before plowing on hillsides or other slopes where the wash of a heavy rain or of melting snow might carry the plant food to the bottom of the hill in- stead of directly into the soil. road and the crown will be. (o T it