How To Use The Road Scraper

In a littlc book on "Improvement of lighwaya," prepared under the auspices of the League of American Wheelmen, an anonymous writer, who is vouched or as authoritj-, writes as follows on the ubjoct of road making as applied to the aro and improvement of the track: 'To provide a smooth highvray," he ays, "is now a very simple and inexpenive work, as labor saving machinery ïas recently been introduced which, unler ordinary conditions, is very efifective. ?he 'road scraper,' or hone, mounted n a frame on wheels and geared o that it can be set to any plane and angle, will smooth off and round up a dirt road quickly and iheaply, conipared with former methods. The general practica of the road master ïas boon to defer the annual repairs till such a time as the farmer has most leisure or inclination to work out the road ax; tliis would usually be late in the sumnier, or even in tho fall when the road crost is at its hardest stage, and iftrr being broken up and spread anew s too dry to harden again rey.diiy. Now that the 'road hone' may be used, work that took a week in the fall may easily ie dono in a day in the spring. Thus he road will be in the right form for sunimer travel at the opening of the season, instead of at its close. This would ■Uso be making tho repairs at the earliest opportunity after the chief damage is done. The worst rute and ridges iro formed early in the spring whon the frost is thawing out, and the ground, being loose and porous, absorbs all the rain fall till the road bed aecomes spoiifiy and miry. When the grouml has di-icdsulïiciently tobe neither muddy nor crusty, the rough ridges are in tlieir most friable condition. They can then be planed down with the road lione with imiuh givater caso, and the material carried into the ruts anj lióles, will pack and harden much better than at any othcr timo, whetlier tho road be chieily clay, loain, sand, gravel or small stones. This rnedium stage of dryness gives tlic best conditions for easy and effective work. If the work be neglected for only a few weeks, the crust may become so hard under the constant pressure of trafilo and tho bakisg sunshine that the lione can make no impression on it. If the work be deferred till ïmdsummer or later, the 'crown' will probably be worn olí the center of the road, and instead of shedding rain to each sido it will carry it along like a water course. Heavy thunderstorma oLtn f.nusc great damage when a road thus becomes Hat or ïiuilow r ti middle. To restore tho proper forui when tho margins become high and hard i.s very 1. orious work, whether done with piek and shovel or with plow and scoop. Tho material will not pack rcadily in dry weathcr, and tho newly repaired road rnay for weeks bo in worse condition than before it was worked. Instead of extensive repairs of thia character only once a year, it would be niuch better to givo a timely scraping as soon a3 practicable after the cliief damage is done in tho spring, and also an occasional honing after heavy rains, or whenever froin any cause the surface becomes rough. One machine would bo sufficient for a largo district, and the times, methods and terms of the work can be ranged on a satisfactory and permanent basis after a few years' experience. Under ordinary conditions a fair road can be maintained throughout the season with iimply this occasional passage of the road lione over it. Tho cost would bo very small compared with present methods. Of course these machines are only suitable where the road is built up with the ordinary soil or subsoil of the district, or with perhaps more or lesa gravel or small stones in certain sections. Thfe, however, is the ordinary structure of all our country roads, and henee this treat Dient will be quite generally applicable." In the same work is printed a treatise by Mr. Clemens Herschel, which treats of the kindred subject of road repairs as follows: "Aftera road has been properly rolled, and the surface mado compact and smooth, it should always be maintained In tliat condition, no matter how greatis the amount of travel on it. 'A stitch in time saves niue,' here as well as elsewhere. The tendency is to produce ruts; these gather water; tliis soaks into the road bed and spoils the whole. ïhe problom can be put in this way: To have id road it is necessary tliat there be no dust or mud on tho game, and that tli ir be no ruto; therefore, remove the ilust and mud as fast as they are formed and iill up the ruts as fast as they are inade. The whole matter is hero in a DUtsbell. It may be thought, at the first view, that this ia too expensive a system. lts principal beauty lies, however, in the fact tliat it costs less per inilo of road kept ono year than the pernicioua systém of annual or semi-annual repairs, as can bo shown and provcd. The (lbove two rules - Bweep oil the mud and düst as fast as they are formed, and fill up the ruts and bad places witta new matenals is fast as tliey nppear - are all that is necessary to bo carried out in order that there be contioually a good road. Without continual repairs there can be no such thing as a constantly good road - a proposition that cannot too often be repeated. By repairin' a road annually, or twice a year, it matten not whicb, the result is, strictly Bpealdng, a good road at no timo during the uholc year. The road is wretched just after repairs; it becoines passable after awhlle, and deteriorates from that day forward until it is again made wretched; and bo on ad infinituni, according to the present only too comrnonly followed systeni. By the other methd is olïered us a road as smooth as a licor, year in and year out, and, let it not be foreotten, at less expense." The following, from W. T. C. Wardwell, of the Rhode Island board of agriculture, states the farmers' view: "Thero can be but ono view taken in regard to the advantage of good country roads, not only to the farmer but to the whole Kt:ite, in the increased valueof property. Wliv the farmers, paying thcir proportion of the taxes, deriving no benefit from any lire service, having no pólice protection, still submit to the miserable country roads without a vigorous protest, is beyond my comprehension," j