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By Hod Carter Along shady Valliant Street in Greenville, Miss, a crew of road workers rolled a huge, 8-foot wide bolt of cotton fabric, white and coarse, and seemingly more suita ble for curtains or dresses than for this strange use. Greenville was inaugurating 4a road program which would result in the hard surfacing of 55 blocks of city streets with a cotton mem brane filler between layers of as phalt. The work was being under taken experimentally, on a large scale, in conjunction with the De partment of Agriculture, which was supplying the fabric. And it was fitting that in Greenville, in the heart of the long-staple cotton producing Mississippi Delta, this first large scale experiment in cot ton paving should be made. Only 30 miles away at Scott, Miss., Os car Johnston, resident of the Na tional Cotton Council, and operator of one of the world’s largest cotton plantations had himself laid down a mile of cotton road seven years ago. The way in which the Scott plantation road had stood up under heavy trucking, automobile travel and plantation machinery had convinced his neighbors that cot ton could make an ideal membrane in the building of enduring, hard surfaced roads. The National Cot ton Council had become convinced this year of the potentialities of cotton in road building. To the task of experimenting in this new use for cotton it had as signed Dean Gilchrist, of the Tex as A and M. And upon his findings depend the possible use of a mil lion bales of cotton a year in road making. The actual laying of roads with cotton binder is as simple as ordi nary blacktopping. The prepared base is first primed with asphalt, which is absorbed by the base in aproximately 24 hours. The cotton membrane is then laid down, by being unrolled the length of the street, doubling and splicing where necessary. Asphalt is then applied to the cotton and covered with gravel, and the gravel cover is rolled and compacted. Finally, as phalt is applied to the rolled grav el, covered with coarse sand and broomed and rolled to a resultant dense, smooth surface. Other cities besides Greenville are also experimenting in cotton roads, through the cooperation of the Department of Agriculture. But the drive to make the nation cotton road-conscious awaits the report of Dean Gilchrist.
Newspaper Details
Alamogordo News
Alamogordo, New Mexico, US
Thu, Sep 21, 1939
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 18 Feb 2026
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