roads.

The only exceptions to the instructions given on road drainage are found
in the attempt to improve a sand road. The more one improves the
drainage of a sand road the more deplorable becomes its condition.
Nothing will ruin one quicker than to dig a ditch on each side and drain
all the water away. The best way to make such a road firm is to keep it
constantly damp. Very bushy or shady trees alongside such roads prevent
the evaporation of water.

The usual way of mending roads which run over loose sandy soils is to
cover the surface with tough clay or mix the clay and sand together.
This is quite an expensive treatment if the clay has to be transported a
great distance, but the expense may be reduced by improving only eight
or ten feet or half of the roadway.

Any strong, fibrous substance, and especially one which holds moisture,
such as the refuse of sugar cane or sorghum, and even common straw,
flax, or swamp grass, will be useful. Spent tan is of some service, and
wood fiber in any form is excellent. The best is the fibrous sawdust
made in sawing shingles by those machines which cut lengthwise of the
fiber into the side of the block. Sawdust is first spread on the road
from eight to ten inches deep, and this is covered with sand to protect
the road against fire lighted from pipes or cigars carelessly thrown or
emptied on the roadbed. The sand also keeps the sawdust damp. The dust
and sand soon become hard and packed, and the wheels of the heaviest
wagons make but little impression upon the surface. The roadbed appears
to be almost as solid as a plank road, but is much easier for the teams.
The road prepared in this manner will remain good for four or five years
and will then require renewing in some parts. The ordinary lumber
sawdust would not be so good, of course, but if mixed with planer
shavings might serve fairly well.

Roads built of poles or logs laid across the roadway are called corduroy
roads, because of their corrugated or ribbed appearance. Like earth
roads, they should never be built where it is possible to secure any
other good material; but, as is frequently the case in swampy, timbered
regions, other material is unavailable, and as the road would be
absolutely impassable without them at certain seasons of the year, it is
well to know how to make them. Roads of this character should be fifteen
or sixteen feet wide, so as to enable wagons to pass each other. Logs
are superior to poles for thi