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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1915)
14 HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION Road Repairs and Maintenance IS?3 Get Your THAT highways constructed with borrowed money should be strictly maintained, is the key note of a chapter in Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 136, deal ing with highway bonds. It has not been customary for officials to face frankly the cost of the maintenance and repair of bond-built highways at the time the bonds are issued and be fore construction begins. In fact, the authors of the bulletin point out, in the majority of cases where bonds have been issued by local authorities there has been no provision what ever for maintaining the roads when built. This is perhaps the greatest defect in the method of building highways by Issuing bonds. Maintenance Necessary. Maintenance, the highway experts of the Department point out, is necessary in order to insure to the community the maximum economic gpectively, $642, DciviLc uj me roau, ana aiso to pre serve the investment. The cost of maintenance and repairs must, there, fore, be studied at the outset. In the absence of general data, the re ports on maintenance from states which have highway departments cost of such re-surfacing is not yet known. Cost of Repairs. The average cost for repair and maintenance of 7300 miles of high way In Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island for the year 1912 was about JS0O per mile. A large part of this money was expended for bituminous resurfacing and bituminous surface treatment. There is some question whether the expenditure correctly measures the average cost of repair ing and maintaining bituminous macadam roads. In the State of New York, however, for the years 1911 and 1912 the av erage cost for repair and mainte nance was $724 per mile upon a total average of 2861 miles'. The annual cost of repair and maintenance on Massachusetts State roads for the years 1910, 1911 and 112 was, re- $647 and $676 per mile for about 850 miles. For the most part these figures for New York and Massachusetts represent the cost per mile of resurfacing with bitumin ous material and of maintaining bituminous-macadam and water-bound macadam roads by surface treatment It is clear, therefore, that $700 per mile is not an excessive estimate at p'resent for the annual cost of all re pair and maintenance of bituminous macadam roads. Kins ul War. A proud King dreamed in his gilded chair; He dreamed and sighed, for the lands were fair! A King said "Yea!" It was but a breath! And a million men marched toward the ' gates of death. A million wives gasped as their hus bands sped; A million babes stafved as their fathers bled. ' A King sought gain in the north and south i million men marched toward the cannon's mouth. Thomas Curtis Clark. And should be of interest to county of- with bituminous material. liters preparing to issue road build ing bonds. The following opinions as to main tenance cost represent the results of careful analyses of state highway re ports, as well as much first-hand In formation gathered by the Depart ment's specialists: Gravel Roads That Last. Well-constructed gravel roads will sometimes sustain several years of traffic without showing marked de terioration, even when there has been no maintenance. Such roads' sometimes even Improve during the second season; more frequently, however, they show ruts or the for mation of chuck holes. It can not be expected that the average life of a gravel surface will be greater than that of a macadam, surface. The average Interval for re surfacing macadam roads is between six and seven years. If a sum equal to two-thirds of the original cost of the gravel surface itself Is provided for renewals at six-year intervals, It should be estimated at from $150 to $250 per mile per year. If $30 Is then allowed for annual dragging and small repairs, the total annual cost of repair and maintenance of gravel roads would be from $180 to $280 per mile. The annual cost of strict mainte nance is sometimes below $30. In Bennington County, Vermont, during 1912, 175 miles of gravel roads were maintained at a cost of $20.70 per mile. The annual cost of mainte nance and repair on sand-clay roads, including all necessary re-surfacing at periodic intervals, should not be fixed at less than 10 per cent of the original cost. Macadam Roads. The cost of repair and maintenance Of water-bound macadam roads has been determined with considerable exactness from Massachusetts figures and checked by re-surfacing charges in other states and in Germany. From $100 to $125 per year ordinar ily pays for necessary small repairs, such aa patching, cleaning culverts, etc., and from $400 to $425 per year is the necessary annual charge tor re-surfacing at periods varying from six to seven years. The sum of $525 per mile, on an average, should therefore absolutely maintain macadam roads if changes and increases of traffic are not ex cessive. It must be understood, how ever, that in many instances where macadam sufficed for the volume and character of traffic prior to 1906, it will not withstand the action of the motor vehicle traffic, which hag developed since that time. Many miles of ordinary or water bound macadam road have been re surfaced with bituminous materials and many miles of new bituminous macadam road have been constructed. The logical maintenance of such high ways is a surface treatment with bi tuminous material and rock screen ings, clean gravel, or sharp sand. The cost of such surface treatment is from 4 to 12 cents per square yard, and it may be expected to last from one to three years, according to the density of traffic and the success of the application. Theoretically, perfect surface treatment would constitute absolute maintenance tor a bituminous macadam road. Such maintenance is seldom or never realized and bituminous-macadam roads doubtless re quire resurfacing at intervals. The PssCanadian Home from the, Canadian Darifir VMIIMMIMII MVIIIV s ukmunY ON'T waste your time and money on worn-out land that is high-priced simply because it was once worth its present price! The richest virgin soil is waiting for you fa Manitoba and the Alberta-Saskatchewan district. You can buy it- for practically the same price per acre that the mere manuring per acre of soil in many parts of the U. S. costsl Fertile Canadian West offers you not only soil cf wondrous productivity, but it also offers you a splendid climate, churches o( all creeds, splendid publio schools, exceptionally good mprlcets. fine hotels and tr&ntnnrtflHnn fai-liftia that QrAtinwr.nltw4 We have a truly tiDlendid DrODOSition to makfl to nntf efirnfi fflrmprnrtn tnen who wish to farm and who are sincere In their desire to utile in this country. We actually are In a position to enable yon to own 10 acres for every acre that you now own or farm and every acre here will produce double what worn-out acre produces anywhere. On top of that, we give you 20 Years fa Pav for t 'oa snfhel'n'l tor from Sll to tt per acre. In l tears 10 ray lOr II. irrigation districts the price is from 1.15 to i 5. You pay merely one twentieth down. The balance Is split up Into 19 equnl pay ments. The farm will more than meet the payments and your family's living ex penses. Canadian Pacific farms pay for themselves over and over again before the time the last payment falls due. We can refer you to tccrtt of farmers who paid for their farms with Uie proceeds of just one crop! You Are Loaned $2000.00 to Pay for Farm Improvement! Here Is land adapted to grain Browing, to poultry raising, dairying, mixed farming and to cattle, hog and sheep raising. Yon decide for yourself what kind of farming you wish to follow. The Canadian 1'aclBc helps yo select the land best adapted to your purposes. And then, If you so desire it, we arrange to have Your Farm Made Ready by Experts Xl ftSVX an expert on the case and select Ike farm that will txattly suit you the one that Ton can farm to most advantage to youneltl Let us tell you about the 400.000.1X10 luheU:rop In Canada this year I Write fur Handsomely Illustrated Book. L.O. THORNTON DISTRICT REPRESENT ATI VB 171 Pine Street (Multnomah Hotel Bldf.), PORTLAND. OR. m 'IF there is any particular commodity in which you are interested, and you do not find it advertised in these columns, let us help you. Write advertising manager, Oregon-vVashington-ldaho Farmer, Ore gonian building, Portland, Or. . X LI . v Ml I tM'ft!! laWl V t A , rrC 'I ' i , i wy it, i i i i jrrrTrra-sJii n .- l t i -if ' h 1 ' 1J X -.T l :v t - it if V7' V 7 11 When the shop is filled with "rush" orders and every man has his nerves keyed up to a tension, then is the time a chew of good old CHEWING TOBACCO is welcome It keeps a man from "flying off the handle" and fretting over his job Look around the big institutions where things are humming and you will find that the men with clear heads and steady nerves generally chew tobacco They get their comfort without disobeying the rule of "no smoking" The mild tobacco with the pleasing flavor is good old STAR The leading brand of the world A Bv cent cut goes a long way STAR