Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 15).djvu/203

 rolling ground and hills do not exceed three or four per cent, it is an unnecessary expense to cut the small ones, but all short rises should be cut and small depressions filled. A rolling road is not objectionable, and besides there is no better roadbed for laying on metal than the hard crust formed by ordinary travel. In putting on the metal, particularly on narrow roads, the roadbed should be "set high;" it will soon get "flat enough." It is better to put the shouldering up to the stone than to dig a trench to put the stone in. If the road after preparation is about level from side to side and the stone or metal construction is to be, say, ten inches deep, the sides of the roadbed to receive the metal should be cut about three inches and placed on the side to help form the shoulder; the rest of the shoulder, when suitable, being taken from the ditches and sides in forming the proper slope. The foundation to receive the metal, if the natural roadbed is not used and the bed is of soft earth, should be rolled until it is hard and compact. It should also conform to the same slope as the road when finished from center to sides.