THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Vol. XIX. 



FEBRUARY, 1877. 



Number 218. 



XOWER |§ARDEN AND If LEASURE MROUND. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The Spring season is the road season, and how 

 to make good roads is a matter of first-rate im- 

 portance. On most places of any size there are 

 too many roads, and then none are well-cared 

 for; good roads are expensive to make and costly 

 to keep in good order, and therefore good judg- 



stone will combine by its own angles into a 

 smooth, solid surface, that cannot be affected by 

 vicissitudes of weather, or displaced by the ac- 

 tion of wheels, which will pass over it without a 

 jolt, and consequently without injury. 



" The size of stones for a road should be that 

 of a hen's egg, or a half a pound weight. It 

 must be in due proportion to the space occupied 





No. 1. — MacAdam Road. 



raent should be used in laying out and form- 

 ing them. If well-made there is not much 

 trouble in keeping them up afterwards. 



For good, solid roads, there is nothing yet 

 known that beats the genuine MacAdam. But 

 the specimens of work usually called Macadamiz- 

 ing would not be owned by MacAdam himself. It 

 will serve a useful purpose to give MacAdam 's 

 own explanation of his work : 



" Every road is to be made of broken stone 

 without mixture of earth, clay, chalk, or any 

 other matter that will imbibe water and be af- 

 fected with frost; nothing is to be laid on the 

 clean stone on .pretence of binding; broken 



by a wheel of ordinary dimensions on a smooth 

 level surface : this point of contact will be found 

 to be longitudinally, about an inch ; and every 

 piece of stone put into a road which exceeds an 

 inch in any of its dimensions, is mischievous." 



A properly made MacAdam road is, however, 

 the most expensive in its first cost, and a sort of 

 compromise is effected by the Telford road, in 

 which large blocks are laid at the bottom, and 

 only broken stone at the surface. This has be- 

 come very common, and answers pretty well. 

 The MacAdam road is made plain by the pre- 

 ceding illustration. — No. 1. 



The Telford road is illustrated by our figure 



