44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



was the recourse to hammer, so the roads he built resolved 

 themselves into simply a case of wearing down the road and 

 getting it into shape by travel. The principle employed by 

 the State today is practically the same as that used by Mac- 

 adam, certainly in the assembUng of the different-sized stone 

 in the construction of the road. Macadam is quoted as saying 

 that no stone should be used larger than that which would go 

 into a man's mouth. We use in Connecticut entirely the 

 mixed stone method, and we have found that this system has 

 given very general satisfaction. 



I have been taken to task many times because of the fact 

 that I don't allow the use of sand as a bonding material in 

 place of the dust had from the stone. The simple reason is 

 that I find there is no bond in sand. Sand used for a filler 

 or wearing surface simply makes, when it is moist, a little 

 wedge. It is all right when it is moist, but when the road 

 becomes dry in the heat of the summer and the impact of the 

 hoof takes place, and the jar of the wheel on the surface of the 

 road, it shakes down through to the subgrade and breaks its 

 bond and the stones come to the surface. Now, the process 

 of bonding a road is very much the same as the process used 

 in making paper. If any of you have ever assisted in making 

 pulp paper you know how it comes down on to the roll and 

 then it comes out at the other end finished. It is just the 

 same principle in the bonding of a road. The water is 

 charged with the dust and is carried down through the dif- 

 ferent courses. The rough sides or faces of the stone re- 

 move the dust from the water, making a perfect filtrate. The 

 dust adhering to the sides of the stone, having a cementic 

 property, unites or assembles the stone in a perfect union ; 

 the longer a road is in use, the stronger the bond when dust 

 from the stone is used for the bonding material ; while, on 

 the other hand, the sand possesses no cementic property. If 

 it had a cementic property within itself it would not be neces- 

 sary to use lime or cement in the making of mortar ; it would 

 not require it. So it has been very plain to me that sand is 

 not the proper material to use for bonding the stone in the 

 several courses of the construction of our State roads, and, 

 knowing this fact, it has been impossible for me to. accept it. 

 I know in my own city years ago we undertook to bond our 

 roads with sand, and they have been an endless bill of ex- 



