Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 15).djvu/200

 where there is almost constant passing, the road should not be less than from fourteen to twenty feet in width. The difficulty in getting on and off the stone road where teams are passing is not so great as is supposed. To meet this difficulty in the past, on each side of the road the specifications require the contractor to make a shoulder of clay, gravel, or other hard earth; this is never less than three feet and sometimes six to eight feet in width, according to the kinds of soil the road is composed of and the liability of frequent meeting and passing. In rural districts the top-dressing of these shoulders is taken from the side ditches; grass sods are mixed in when found, and in some cases grass seed is sown. As the stone roadbed takes the travel the grass soon begins to grow, receiving considerable fertilizing material from the washing of the road; and when the sod is once formed the waste material from the wear of the road is lodged in the grass sod and the shoulder becomes hard and firm, except when the frost is coming out.

Another mode of building a rural road cheaply and still have room for passing