228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



next fundamental requisite of a good road is thorough drainage. 

 Without this all other things fail to give a decent, durable road, 

 one tiiat can be cheaply kept in order, and used equally well 

 throughout the year. Not infrequently thorough drainage is 

 enough to convert a miserable road into a road that is compara- 

 tively good ; yet there is little or no systematic attempt at 

 thorough drainage in any section of the State. Seldom or never 

 is the spirit level used, in work upon our country roads, for the 

 purpose of giving the ditches a uniform inclination. 



Where the slope of the surface is considerable, and the soil not 

 easily penetrated by water, the work of drainage can be readily 

 accomplished. When the surface is level, or its inclination but 

 slight, with a soil quickly saturated and softened by rain or melt- 

 ing snow, there should be, as a rule, upon each side of the road, a 

 ditch at least three feet deep. Its width, at the bottom, should 

 be perhaps one foot, while the slope of the sides is such as 

 demanded by the nature of the soil. In order that the water may 

 be rapidly conve3''ed away, the longitudinal slope of this ditch must 

 be uniform, and at least one foot in 200. If the soil and the lay of 

 the land are such that thorough drainage of the road-bed, saving 

 from the effects of frost in winter and from mud during the wettest 

 periods of the year, cannot be thus secured, then underdrains of 

 stone or tile must be laid across the road at intervals of 10 to 40 

 feet, as circumstances require. The more porous the soil the less 

 frequent these cross drains need be. One of the very best things, 

 however, is an underdrain running lengthwise of the road and 

 along its centre. By this the central portion of the road is re- 

 lieved of all moisture, except that harmless amount which the soil 

 retains by capillary attraction alone. A larger amount of mois- 

 ture the road bed should never hold ; if never holding more there 

 would be no trouble from frost, no conversion of the road, at any 

 season of the year, into "sloughs of despond," as so frequently 

 happens now. A zigzag road, whose surface should always in- 

 cline slightly towards the hill, requires a cross-ditch or culvert at 

 every turn. Thus easily may we guard the zigzag road against 

 the washing which makes such havoc with roads that go straight 

 over the hills, and which cannot bo prevented so long as the roads 

 follow such straight line. 



At Paris llill I am told there may be seen an illustration of the 

 admirable results that can bo secured by even imperfect (^rainage. 

 The streets in the village, and especially the long hill leading to 



