Care of the Surface

If during the summer the road becomes badly rutted, the scrap ing grader should be lightly run over the surface—preferably when the road is a little damp. A little timely work done in the right way is like "the stitch in time that saves nine." A common error in scraping roads is not to begin far enough down in the ditch, thus leaving a shoulder which prevents the water from flowing from the roadway into the side ditch. Fig. 40 shows a road finished in this way. The shoulders not only dam back the water, but also narrow the roadway; and after weeds and grass have got a good start, it is improbable that the shoulder will be cut off next time the road is scraped, and in all probability each successive scraping will make a bad matter worse. However, with a skilful use of the scraping grader these shoulders can be cut off (see Fig. 31, page 107).

Not infrequently writers claim that material from the side ditches should not be placed upon the roadway. Unquestionably silt from the bottom of the ditches is undesirable material with which to build or repair a road; but in ditches properly constructed and cared for, there is not much, if any, of such material, and if any of it is removed with the scraping grader •it is so thoroughly mixed with good material before it reaches the roadway as to be practi cally harmless. The advice against fine material from the side ditches originated when the drag scraper was the chief tool used in repairing roads, and the advice has unfortunately outlasted its usefulness.

Cost of Scraping.

To shape up the road in the spring, six horses and three men are required to operate the scraper. The wages of a team and driver will usually be $3.00 or $3.50 per day, since generally the scraping should be done when farmers are busy with farm work, and since the work is hard on teams. The cost of operating the grader is then $9.00 to $10.50 per day. A scraper will on the average smooth up 3 or 4 miles per day, at an expense of $3.00 to $3.50 per mile, or, in round numbers, including repairs and low by bad weather, say, $4.00 per mile. If the road is not very rough two rounds are enough, and if it is very bad four may be required, but on the average three rounds are sufficient. If the work is postponed too long, the cost may be nearly double the above. Not infrequently a traction engine can be hired cheaper than horses; and if the roads are not too rough or too soft, the engine is better than horses.

The cost of smoothing up city streets would be considerably more than the above, because of the time consumed in passing side walk crossings or in turning to avoid them. However, the amount of work accomplished in a day depends greatly upon the training of men and horses. In a particular case, city teams were employed to scrape city streets, and with every appearance of an honest effort only fifteen blocks were shaped per day. Under the same conditions, country teams smoothed twenty-five blocks per day with seemingly no unusual effort.

The actual cost for country roads is often much greater than the above, particularly when the work is done under the road tax system, since frequently when the operator is ready to work he must go several miles for the grader and then finds that it is in use or is somewhere else; and, perhaps, when found he discovers that the blade must be taken to the blacksmith shop to be sharpened. The remedy for this state of affairs is in better road administration and in having more machines. The number of miles of road which one machine will serve will depend upon the nature of the soil, the amount, of travel, the condition in which the roads are kept, the amount of use made of the harrow (§ 195) and of the railroad rail (§ 196). and upon whether the roads are maintained under the labor-tax or the cash-tax system (§ 52). On the prairie of the Illinois corn-belt one machine is sufficient for 15 to 25 miles of road.

Rolling.

Many writers recommend the use of a roller in maintaining earth roads. Unquestionably the more compact the road-bed the better, but the advantage secured by rolling is not worth the cost. The only time when a roller would have an appre ciable effect would be early in the spring, just after the frost has gone out of the ground; but clearly it would be impracticable to use the roller before the surface has been smoothed with the scrap ing grader; and after the surface has been smoothed up by planing off the ridges and filling up the hollows, the roller would simply ride on the ridges and practically not compact the road at all—at least not where most needed, i. e., in the hollows. It is not known that the roller was ever tried in maintenance—at least several writers who have recommended it highly for this purpose say that they do riot know of its ever having been so used. See § 130.