CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS AM) WALKS 



the passage of heavy wagons; again, those for foot passengers may be of a different 

 character. As coming more directly within the scope of the " Horticulturist," the 

 first niul last mentioned varieties are those to which our remarks will be chiefly 

 directed. 



The chief object to be kept in view to maintain a tcood road is to keep it dry; no 

 road can be kept in good order, or prove entirely satisfactory in all seasons, unless 

 carefully protected from water. This is best sccui'ed by leaving the surface slightly 

 convex, and keeping it rather above the adjoining ground level. Our remarks will 

 probably be better understood by reference to the following cross sections, Fig. 1 



Fig. 1. Fia. 2. 



being the most general method of forming carriage roads, and Fig. 2 tbe mode that 

 we recommend above. 



All the rain that falls on a road formed similar to Fig. 1 either sinks into the 

 road or accumulates at the sides, washing the surface material, unless intercepted at 

 short intervals with cross gutters on the road and deep notches in the edgings, both 

 of which are unsightly and inadmissable in a well kept carriage drive. Expedients 

 in the way of underground drains running parallell with and having occasional inlets 

 from the road, are frequently resorted to, with a view of modifying these defects. 

 But we would promulgate as a dogma, that covered drains for the removal of surface 

 water will never prove satisfactory in this climate. We doubt not that all who have 

 had experience in these matters will willingly endorse this opinion. 



Objections have been urged against rounding the centre of roads, on account of 

 the inconvenience of travelling on any portion of their surface unless in the middle. 

 When a road is rounded in an extreme degree this objection is very just, not only 

 on account of the inconvenience, but also from the injury to the road by the travel 

 being mostly confined to the centre, where, indeed, is the only place a vehicle can 

 run upright. A rise towards the centre of one inch to the yard will be found 

 sufficient to carry off water, and form no impediment to travel over any portion of 

 the surface. 



It will be observed in Fig. 2, that the excavated surface upon which the road is 

 to be formed, is rounded in the same degree as the exterior surface of the finished 

 road. This form of excavation has often been recommended as a means of directing 

 the water that sinks into the road to the sides. A slight reflection will show that 

 no benefit of the kind can be obtained, since the water that finds its way through 

 the hard and compact material of which the road is formed, will not be arrested in 

 its downward progress by the soft soil. This supposes a state of things which the 

 chief aim is to prevent, for a road must be in a bad state when water finds a passage 

 thus freely through it. But we would give the foundation of the road this form to 

 allow an equal depth of material over the whole, that it may be equally strong 

 hout. 



The outline of the road having been resolved upon the edgings should be brou; 



