THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE, ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Volume XVIII. 



FEBRUAEY, 1876. 



Number 206. 



XOWER pARDEN AND pLEASURE KROUND. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The problem of perfect roads is yet unsolved. 

 As every place, large or small, has to have path- 

 ways of some kind, it is a topic that interests 

 ever}- reader of our magazine. As we cannot 

 have perfection, we must approach it as near as 

 we can ; and we may approach much nearer 

 than we do, if we will give our thou^dits to the 

 principles that underlie success. 



There is but one enemy to a good road, and 

 this is water. Some would say frost, but frost 

 does no injury whatever where water does not 

 exist. If we can get anj- kind of material so 

 tight and compact that it will not absorb water, 

 it is entirely frost-proof. This is the real secret 

 of the value of asphalt, which is simply bitumin- 

 ous limestone. Tiie rock is first broken in small 

 pieces, then crushed fine, and rolled under heat. 

 The crushing makes innumerable small spaces, 

 into which the melted bitumen penetrates. 

 Every air space is thus effectually closed, and 

 of course it is entirely water-proof. No frost can 

 therefore affect it in the slightest degree. The 

 danger is from high temperatures. The dark 

 color favors a rapid absorption of heat, and the' 

 heated mass expands, and as it cools makes nu- 

 merous small fissures that permit water to fol- 

 low. This freezes, and the disruption of the 

 whole commences, imperceptibly at first, but in 

 time to a serious extent. Lime alone will make 

 a tolerably good path, if slacked before using, 

 and put down in the form of plaster ; trusting to 



continuous rolling to press out the air cells. Its 

 particles are too soft to stand against heavy, sud- 

 den blows, such as from horses' feet, but for steady 

 travel it is excellent, and very cheap. For cellar 

 flooi-s nothing better can be desired. It takes a 

 couple of weeks or more to harden, but is then 

 perfect reck. We were astonished recently to 

 see the cellar floors of a very large public build- 

 ing in Philadelphia being asphalted, as if they 

 were for a tremendous traffic, when the great ex- 

 pense might have been avoided by a lime floor. 

 The lime floor we have described, it must be par- 

 ticularly noted, is not a mortar floor, but a plas- 

 ter floor made of well-slacked lime and rolled. 



There is not, however, much gained by these 

 patent attempts to get over the road-making dif- 

 ficvilties of the time. None of them are equal to 

 a first-class Macadam road, made of the best flint 

 rock. Rarely is a road, said to be "Macadam- 

 ized," really so. To make one we must first pro- 

 vide for thorough drainage. Any coarse, heavy 

 stone that will lay solid will do for a foundation. 

 As we near the surface it must be smaller, but 

 that on the top should be no larger than almonds, 

 and the whole compactly rolled. The reason 

 why they must be so small and no larger is this : 

 If a stone moves ever so little under a heavy 

 wheel, it is bound to be more or less broken ; or 

 if it does not move, if it bears the whole weight 

 of a wheel without any support from its neigh- 

 boring pieces of stone, it will be crushed to dust. 

 But if the pieces are so small that each is com- 

 pactly wedged in by the others, so that any dis- 

 placement of the piece is utterly impossible, it 



