LITERARY NOTICES. 



267 



mends that all roads should have a ditch 

 about four feet deep on each side, outside 

 the fences. In particularly wet places the 

 road-bed should be thoroughly subdrained. 

 For use in cities he names asphalt, stone 

 blocks, wooden blocks, and brick as suitable 

 pavements, giving the advantages and disad- 

 vantages of each. He states that a concrete 

 foundation, which need not be very rich in 

 cement, should be provided for any of these. 

 For country roads Mr. Irwin is convinced 

 that the Telford-Macadam system is by far 

 the best, and he says that it is not much 

 more costly than a sufficiently deep simple 

 Macadam. He then goes on to tell what stone 

 should be chosen for the road-metal, how it 

 should be broken and laid on, and how the 

 surface of the road should be finished. While 

 urging the general use of macadamized roads, 

 he does not omit to tell how gravel and earth 

 roads can be improved. Under the head of 

 maintenance Mr. Irwin touches on cleaning 

 and repairing the surface of roads, and clean- 

 ing out drains. Under economic features, he 

 gives figures that show how much loss farm- 

 ers suffer from bad roads. " A farmer who 

 might send produce into market for two hun- 

 dred days in the year, using a pair of horses 

 to draw a load of about a ton on a poor gravel 

 road, could, if the road were well macadam- 

 ized, dispense with one of the horses. Sup- 

 posing that the horse cost him forty cents 

 per day (including interest on first cost), he 

 would save on this single item eighty dollars 

 per annum." Then there is the wear and tear 

 of wagons and harnesses to be considered, 

 and the loss in the price of produce from not 

 being able to get it into town when it is want- 

 ed, or not fast enough, if the roads happen 

 to be deep in mud at that time. From the 

 Engineering News of February 22, 1890, is 

 quoted a " statement made by Captain Brown, 

 manager of Hollywood truck-farm in Vir- 

 ginia, to the effect that a pair of horses can 

 draw fifty-five barrels of produce over the 

 roads on that farm, which are in excellent 

 condition, whereas on the ordinary country 

 roads they can only draw twelve barrels." 

 As to road legislation, Mr. Irwin recommends 

 that control over all public roads and bridges 

 should be given to a council in each county. 

 The council should appoint, an engineer, as- 

 sistants, and clerks, whose tenure of office 

 should be permanent. He also recommends 



the employment of convicts in cleaning and 

 repairing county roads, or in breaking stone 

 at the jails. 



The writer of the second-prize paper, Da- 

 vid H. Bergey, B. Sc, M. D., devotes consid- 

 erable space to general discussion of the sub- 

 ject. His recommendations and statements 

 agree generally with those of Mr. Irwin, 

 though he prefers the Macadam to the Tel- 

 ford road. The third-prize essay, by James 

 B. Olcott, of South Manchester, Conn., is 

 quite similar to the preceding. One thing 

 that he protests against is the putting of a 

 layer of broken stone, by contractors, over 

 the surface of a road for the public to wear 

 it down by the wheels of their vehicles. Five 

 papers that had received honorable mention 

 are also published. The writers of these, 

 without reference to order, are Edwin Sat- 

 terthwait, President of the Cheltenham and 

 Willow Grove Turnpike, Jcnkintown, Pa. ; 

 Charles Punchard, of Philadelphia ; George 

 B. Fleece, C. E., Memphis, Tenn. ; Frank 

 Cawley, B. S., Instructor in Civil Engineer- 

 ing, Swarthmore College; and Francis F. 

 McKenzie, C. E., of Philadelphia. A digest 

 of the main suggestions in the other papers 

 that were submitted, and a review of all the 

 essays by Prof. Lewis M. Haupt, the secre- 

 tary of the committee that arranged the 

 competition, follow the above. A list of 

 brief rules, published by the Road Improve- 

 ment Association, of London, is appended. 

 The committee intends to publish also a 

 draft or drafts of a model legislative bill 

 for a road law. 



This subject is one which profoundly 

 affects the interests of farmers, and will re- 

 turn ten times as much for money, time, and 

 effort expended on it as the ordinary politi- 

 cal schemes which promise to do so much 

 for the farmer in return for his support. 

 The above-described volume should have a 

 wide circulation, and should find a place in 

 every public and school library in our farm- 

 ing communities. 



Studies in Psychology. By S. G. Burnsy. 

 Nashville, Tenn : Cumberland Presby- 

 terian Publishing House. Pp. 535. 



The author of this work is Professor of 

 Systematic Theology in Cumberland Univer- 

 sity, and is author of a book on moral science 

 and some works in theology. The volume 

 contains the substance of his class-lectures, 



