FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



315 



the iuiprovemcnt of common roads, it is equally certain that it will pay to im- 

 prove them to a much greater extent than has been done in tlio past. 



The following tal)lc shows tlie average draught over different kinds of roads, 

 from experiments by Sir John Macneill ; also the load for a team over each 

 road, deduced on the supposition that an average horse "can exert a steady 

 pull of 100 hundred pounds, at a speed of 2.V miles an hour for ten hours each 

 day.'" In the table the net load is assumed as two thirds the gross load, but 

 in practice it will be found less more often than greater. The cost is also given 

 on the assumption that wages of man with team and wagon is $2.50 per day; 

 which furnishes a means of comparison of the different roads, but except in 

 a few cases it will not give the exact cost of transportation. 



KIND OF ROAD. 



Smooth stone pavement 



Broken stone road on rock foun- 

 dation 



Broken stone road ou earth 

 foundation 



Gravel road 



Good earth road 



Common sandy road 



The cost of these roads can not even be approximately given as cost of grad- 

 ing, turnpiking, and putting on the road covering differ so much in various 

 localities. The cost of maintaining is somewhat in proportion to the traffic or 

 tonnage. 



The least cost of a gravel road containing 3520 cubic yards of gravel per 

 mile, under the most favorable conditions will probably be not less than 1800 

 per mile, $400 of which should be expended in each of the first two years. 

 Under some conditions the cost will amount to four to six times this amount. 

 If the road is well made the cost of annual repairs will be small ; say for the 

 next eight years $50 per mile, that is, a man and team at work constantly 

 would keep in repair fifteen miles. This would give us an average annual cost 

 during the first ten years for a good gravel road of $120 to $520 for each mile. 

 For a second term of ten years its cost per mile would be less. A broken stone 

 road would give an average cost of probably twice this amount for the first ten 

 years, whereas, for the second term of ten years its cost would probably be less 

 than that of a gravel road. These figures would indicate a greater economy 

 in a gravel road than is usually supposed. To illustrate this we will take an 

 example which is certainly not unreasonable. Suppose that after a road is 



iThla has been found bv numerous experiments to be an average day's work for a horse. See 

 TraiUvvine's Civil ICngiueering, page COS. 



