Stone Roads

Hou. Win. L. Webber, of East Suginaw, liad a most admirable artirle In a recent issue of tbe Sagi'.aw Evenin News upon the important subject of Stone liouds, from whicti we take the following points. Any person who has traveleü over the line stone ronds of Bay County can nppreciate their value, especially after attempting to wallow ilinmli the black mud roaüs of thai valley : That good wagon roads are useful and necessiiry tor the welfare at any coinmunity is a conceded fact. How to get and keep i'ood roads is the qnestlon. To obtaiu gocid roads in the first instance one must consider the face of the country as to cradef, the chnracier of the soil and the materittls tbut are available in that locality at reasonable prices. Drainage is the lirst consideration. A good road cannot be made in water at uny moderate cot. It is olieaper to ullow the water to run away from the land than it is to bu'iM up tlu: land above the water. All authorities sgree upon the itnportance of drainage. Before the days of Telford and MacAdam drainage had been ïnucli neglected. These gentlemen reformed road making in the old country, and both insisted upon the necessity tor lliorouxli drainage. Gilmore, In his work on "Roads, Sireets and Pavements," says: "All roads upon clay soils in flat levcl countries, should be amply provided witli drains under the road covering." Tlie metliod of drainage dependa upon the econonties of the situation - perhaps tile, perhaps stoiie drains, perhnps brlck, but always drainnge. Gillespie, in his work on "Iiiads and Rail roads," says: "The drainage of a road is one of the most important ühmi'iits in lts condition, all attempts at imprnvement are u-eless till the water is properly got rid of." These Htithorities are in the line with all per sonal experiences. The Mac Adam pavement is made by usltic broken stone twelve to tifteen iiichus thick. The Telford pavement- r TelfordSIacAdam as it is sometimes Oalled - is ubstantially the same aa MacAdatn, exeept tt.at larger stones are used in tlie boUom. Quoting f rom Codrlngton, the Telford System Is thus desciibed : "Iliis foundation is a regular close paveinent ofstone carefully iet by band, and varying In height trom elght to gix luches, to suic the curvature ot' the road. Thei-e stones are all set on edge, hut with the flat one lowest, so that ench shall rest perlectly firm. Tbe Interstices are then plnned with small stones; and care la taken that no stone ehall be broader thao four or f'tve inches, as the upper stratum does not bind upon them so well hen they much exceed that breadth. The pavement thus constructed is quite tirm and immovable and forms a complete separation between the top strutum of broken stones and the retentlve soil below.' 'l'he French engineer, Tresaquet, in 1764 described a system of inaking pavement, which was generally adopted in France as early as 1775, thus: "The boitom of the foundation Is to be parallel to the surface of the road. The flrst bed on the foundation is to be placed on edge, and not on the flat, in the fonn of a rougli pavement j and consoliilated by beating with a large hammer, but ir. la unnecessary that the stones should be even one with another. The second bed Is to be equally arranged by lmnd, layer by layer, and beaten and broken coarsely with a large haminer, so that the stones may wedge together and no empty space remaln. The last bed, three inches in thickncss, Is to be broken to aboutthe sizo of a nut with a small hainmer, on one side on a sort of anvil, and thrown upon the road with a shovel to form the curved surface. üreat attentlon must be giren to choose the lmrdest stone for the last bed, even If one is obliged to go to more distant quarries than tliose wliicli fariilsh stone lor the body of the road ; the solidity of the road depending on this later bed, one cannot be too scrupulous as to the quality of matcrials which are ueeil ior t." All the engineers agree that there shall be a firm bottnming for the road. If the sub-soil can be made dry by drainage it is always the chtapest way of providing a tlrra bottom. Since the days of Teltord and MacAdam the methoO of breaking stone has been much improved and cheapened. The stone breaking whlch formerly was done by hand is now done by machinery much quicker and at much less expense. In places where cobble-stone of suitble size can be found, if they are propperly 1 lid, they would makc a good bottom, and perhaps miny of the farmers in Saglnuw counly may have cobble-stones which they would be piad to be rid of, suffleient to muke a íooü roadway : 1 ng the skle of the farm, so far as the proper amount of stone necpssary for that purpose is concerned. Upon this bottoming of cobble-stones could be placed a top dressing of suitable materials and thns make a good, permanent road. With a suitable crusher no better miiterial could be found than to break cobble-stones to a suitable size and use these for the top of the road. At Jonesville, in this state, is a large stone crusher engaged In making road material by the crushing of granite cobble-stone. It is Important to practice the greatest economy in the way of hauling material; as the stone is so heavy, all suitable stone found locally should bc utliized so far as practicable. Some gravel is good for a top dressing, 80ine gravel is not good. To test it, observe, firsr, how maiiy of the pebbles are of sand stone - these will grind up under the wheels and become sand at once. Obseive also wliat percentage of clay may be in the gravel ; wash the gravel thorouglily and see how rniich clay you can vvash out of it. Clay mixed witb gravel is not a good material for a roadway, nor is too inucli fine sand. It is as important that the gravel sliould be judged of carofully, as it is to use good judgment and good sense in otber respecta in the construction and mainteuance of roads. Some gravel will, under travel, become bard and compact ; other gravel always remains loose - the former is a a good material for roaüways, wliile the latter is not. The material for a road must be homogeneous, so it will bind together. The throwing of surftice black soil and sod Into a clay muu liole only makes it worse. Mixing of shore gravel and bank gravel - different in their composit ion and formation - is not calculated to Insure a permanent, hard road-bed. The inixing of broken stone witli clayey gravel does not insure the best road. I wish to give some Bgmcs on the cost of a Mae Adam pavemem. A strcet one niile long and thirty feet wide is to be paved wilh stone twelve luches thick. The lower eight inches of ihis stone is all coarse llat stone, after the Telford plan, set on edge, witli the larger edge on the bottom; the upper four inches Is made of cruahed stone, the lower huif of whlch is coarser tlian the upper half the top dressing is to be stone passed through an incli screen, no gravel whatever to be used; earth to be excavated twelve inches deep and thirty feet wide, the bed to be thoroiighly rolled witli a heavy roller, then the larger stone put in place, each stone set in place by hand, the crushed stone to be placed on top, sprinkled and rolled until hard. ïiiis road, ten yards wide and 1,700 yards lonjr, has a snrface área of 17,700 yards. Assuming that one cord of coarse stone would be equal to 100 cubic feet in place, it would riquire 1,584 cords ot coarse stone for the bottom eight Inches, which, at $4.50 per cord, would be $7,128; add to this 50 cents per cord for plicing the stone by hand in the rond, Is $1,584, niaking a total of $0,501 for the coarse stone in place. The top dressing of four inches of crushed stooe would rrquire 1,955 1-9 cubic yards - say 2,000 yards of crushed stone at $1.40 per yard on cars. This is $2,800 for the cost of crushed stone on cars. Assuming 50 cents per yard for hauling this ciushed stone and placing for use, and it adds $1,000 for that purpose, making a total of $3,800 for the cruslied stone in place. To excávate one foot deep for the 17.G00 yards area would requlri! handlinr 5,80073 cubic yards - say 0,800 yards it 30 cents per yard would be $1,800. Assuming the cost of drainage would be $500, we have a total cost as follows : Coarse stone in place 19,501 00 Urushed Htoue in place 3,800 00 Kxcavatlon 1 S00 00 Drainage 500 00 Jl.-i Ü01 0J for the 17,000 yards. Now, at $1 per yard this leaves about $2,000 for rolling mul incidentals. It you provide euro stone the cost of that must be addud. But this gives yon a stone road ot homogenous material abmlutely salid and good for a ganeration, at $1 a yard - as cheap as the cedar blink pavement. If tbu method of making roads were to be appliedwhere the road-bed is only requlrt'd to be nine or ten feet In width the cost per mile of course would be lessened proportloned to area. But the question of cost for country roads would depend somewhat upon the distance the stone must be hauled to the place upon the road-bed, ttie shorter the distance the less the expense. When a woman docks herself of n few years of time sho ineiely looks upon t as a short-age. - Scranton Tiutli. 8he - Do you think marrlage is a failure? He (aged 20)- It begina to look that way. I've been rejected 14 times. - Washington Slar. A ''musical gas machine" Is said to have been Dvented in Kogland, hut. it is probibly a new name for the same oíd meter. - Pittsburgh Uhronicle. Jlmmy - You get all the profit and I have to do all the liddling. Burjflar (gtutterin?)- Yes, but I do all the SingSinging.- New York Herald.