f an underdrained, wet, clayey soil can
be remedied by a large quantity of materials has caused a large part of
the costly and unsuccessful expenditures in making stone roads."

The evils from improper construction of stone roads are even greater
than those resulting from the use of improper material. Macadam never
intended that a heterogeneous conglomeration of stones and mud should be
called a macadam road. The mistake is often made of depositing broken
stone on an old road without first preparing a suitable foundation. The
result, in most cases, is that the dirt and mud prevent the stone from
packing and by the action of traffic ooze to the surface, while the
stones sink deeper and deeper, leaving the road as bad as before.

Another great mistake is often made of spreading large and small stones
over a well-graded and well-drained foundation and leaving them thus for
traffic to consolidate. The surface of a road left in this manner is
often kept in constant turmoil by the larger stones, which work
themselves to the surface and are knocked hither and thither by the
wheels of vehicles and the feet of animals. These plans of construction
cannot be too severely condemned.

The roadbed should be first graded, then carefully surface-drained. The
earth should then be excavated to the depth to which material is to be
spread on and the foundation properly shaped and sloped each way from
the center so as to discharge any water which may percolate through.
This curvature should conform to the curvature of the finished road. A
shouldering of firm earth or gravel should be left or made on each side
to hold the material in place, and should extend to the gutters at the
same curvature as the finished road. The foundation should then be
rolled until hard and smooth.

Upon this bed spread a layer of five or six inches of broken stone,
which stone should be free from any earthy mixture. This layer should be
thoroughly rolled until compact and firm. Stone may be hauled from the
stone-crusher bins or from the stone piles in ordinary wheelbarrows or
from wagons, and should be distributed broadcast over the surface with
shovels, and all inequalities leveled up by the use of rakes. If this
method of spreading is employed, grade stakes should be used so as to
insure a uniformity of thickness. After the stakes are driven the height
of the layer is marked on their sides, and if thought necessary a piece
of stout cord is stretched from stak