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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1915)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION 9 The Problem of Graveled Roads EVIDENTLY Otto Kheinhardt, Commissioner of the Nampa Highway District, Canyon Coun ty, Idaho, has solved the problem o graveling the highways at moderate cost. Three years ago he decided to gravel the district's share of the boulevard between Nampa and Cald well. A half mile aw ay, Indian Creek runs parallel with this boulevard and there an abundant supply of gravel was procured. Fortunately the very heavy traffic incident to hauling rails and ties for the Interuiban Electric line track cut through the gravel, mixing the underlying soil with the superimposed gravel in suitable pro portions for cementing a firm, smooth roadbed. A per centage of clay or volcanic ash soil mixed with gravel makes a hard, smooth roadbed not likely to absorb rainfall. The re sult on the boulevard has been to se cure a very serviceable roadbed highly commended by local and United States engineers. Under the Inspiration of this suc cessful roadbed a neighborhood lying to the west, called Orchard avenue, decided to gravel on the following plan: The farmers to donate the use of teams and wagons with dump boards. Xnmpa Highway .Methods. The Nampa Highway district to provide gravel, usually donated by those who have it, pays the shovelers and a man to help dump the loads and also spread and smooth the gravel on the roadbed, using for this purpose a King drag. The freshly graveled roadbed should be smoothed with a King drag or other implement weekly for two months or until set tled and cemented with the underly ing soil. Four inches of gravel in the middle of the roadbed with two Inches on the sides soil in Buch pro portions as to shed rain and form a smooth solid bed. Heavy traffic cuts through the gravel In wet weather until enough underlying soil has been mixed and cemented with the gravel to Bhed rain and create a solid road bed. A moderate percentage of play soil mixed with the gravel as applied will pack and cement from the beginning. The clay gravel banks along the recla mation ditches piled by the dredges supply ideal material for graveling our roads. This mixture of clay, sand and gravel packs from the very first and does not deed underlying soil cut In by heavy traffic. Admixture Needed. Coarse gravel, free from clay or soil, will need an admixture of soil from below to secure a hard, smooth roadbed. Orchard avenue has now been graveled two years. Its suc cess from the start has been such as to attract the attention of other neighborhoods. This Fall the Lone Star and Midway districts have been graveled and other lines will soon be completed to the extent of 13 miles of graveled roads In this neighbor hood. The Midway district, one and one fourth miles, 400 rods, required 800 loads of gravel and 26 hours to apply. The gravel was hauled from 30 to 200 rods. On December 5, eight shovelers and 15 teams hauled 270 loads, covering 135 rods of road at a cost of 20 cents each and a rod cost 4114 cents, making the total cost of one and one-fourth miles $207 or $165.60 the mile. On the Lone Star road the gravel was hauled from three-fourths of a mile to the length of the graveled road three miles. The number of loads was 1800 or 660 loads to the mile, at a total cost of $776.99. Each load cost 43 cents or $258.99 the mile. To this must be added $10 the mile for work the next two months with team and King drag smoothing the surface. brought to the surface by the reced ing glacier and already drying In the sun to be wafted away in tiny par ticles by the wind. Mr. Witham dug Ice parts of countless grasshoppers a hole two feet deep into the mass of frozen grasshoppers, reaching a place where the insects were whole, pre served Just as they were when they alighted in some cross-country flight, probably ages before the first Nor wegians landed on the coast of Green land. Those who remember the grasshopper invasion in 1875, when a mammoth cloud of Insects that blackened the sun swept like a scourge from Montana to Texas and back again, will recollect that the year of 1875 was unusually mild. The theory that eggs of the grass hoppers laid In the glacier before the original horde was frozen might have gained the surface, thawed and hatched, Is held to be feasible. Ex periments have proven that grass hopper eggs may remain frozen for an indefinite time and still remain fertile. Come This Winter Ancient Grasshoppers. Recent explorations near Cook City, Alaska, have revealed a glacier peculiarly filled with grasshoppers, which are supposed to have existed countless ages ago. In July of this year two scientific prospectors, J. C. Whitham and Howard Morris, visited the place and found strewn over the There's a welcome for the world Where the valleys broad are curled Throuph the land of endless Summer In the West; Where eternal sunbeams play 'Mid the golden boughs that Bway As the zephyrs whisper songs you love the best, While the mountains rise snow crowned 'Neath a sky that's seldom frowned! Come, this Winter you are welcome with the rest! Over every garden bod See the petals, ruby red, Of the flaming rose a-waving In the alrl And by forest, stream or field Not a spot may be revealed But the treasuries of nature are laid bare. In this land of. oil and gold Where the people, young and old, Have a welcome for the pilgrims that may fare. And the yellow popples dance In the playful sunbeam's glance, Whose golden glow it never falls to lend; While the blossoms of the trees Throw their perfume to the breeze As a tribute which the lavish land may send To keep the Storm King's host. Of which the northlanda boast. From the mellow clime where Sum mers never end. And the hymn that labor sings Is the chant of Jjy that springs From the blessings of fat and preg nant soil; For there's not a dell nor plain But yields up the joyous grain M'hen awakened by the magic touch of Toil; Where the people wait to meet With their outstretched hands to greet. And a welcome that no snowy chill may spoil. And the roar of whirring steel Bursts amid the crash and peal In the factories that art has set alive; And the deep and mighty ships Gently glid-j into their slips. With the cargoes of the nations, as all strive To send the finest wares That the hand of commerce bears To the land where labor, love and capital may thrive. There's a welcome for the world Where the valleys broad are curled Through the land of endless Summer In the West; Where eternal sunbeams play 'Mid the golden boughs that sway As the zephyrs w hisper songs you love the best, While the mountains stand snow crowned 'Neath a sky that's seldom frowned Come, this Winter you are welcome with the rest! Gordon Ray Young, In Midwinter Number, Los Angeles Times. About 400,000 automobiles are turned out each year by factories located at Detroit, Mich., while the total value of automobiles and auto mobile supplies produced annually in that city amounts to over $65000, 000. These factories give employ ment, to 120,000 men and have a weekly pay roll of over $1,500,000. ASK your friends to buy their Railroad Tickets to Cali fornia, via the Pacifc Northwest. "1915" First Special Train of Automobiles to the Pacific Northwest Will "Buicks," of Course Be VALVE -IN -HE AD fr?) m0m MOTOR CARS 40 Carloads 200 Automobiles VALVE-IN-HEAD 1 tfo MOTOR CARS Have left the Buick factory, Flint, Michigan, consigned to the Howard Automobile Co., for distribution in the Pacific Northwest $ 250,000 or a quarter of a million is the value of this special trainload of Buicks. The freight bill alone will be over $18,000 Reason ? Buicks Sell ! Howard Automobile Company Phones: Main 4555, A 2550 Mel G. Johnson, Manager Fourteenth and Davis Sts. FORTLASD, ORKGOX