Farm Roads on Strong Soils. 83 



works, but it is peculiarly applicable to the making of roads 

 throug:h clay districts, in which it is most frequently found that 

 materials are scarce, and the cost of maintenance (unquestion- 

 ably the tenant's duty) therefore very heavy. It would appear 

 only fair and reasonable that neither the owner for life nor 

 the tenant at will should supply the capital required for the 

 making of roads. In road-making, as in draining, and other per- 

 manent improvements, the outlay should be met by means of 

 borrowed capital charged on the improved lands and repayable 

 by instalments in a given number of years. 



It is an axiom with engineers that roads should be so sub- 

 stantially constructed and metalled that the cost of their main- 

 tenance shall be reduced to a minimum, i. e. to just such an 

 amount as will simply replace the current loss of materials by the 

 wear and tear of traffic. 



But with respect to internal farm roads, it has been urged 

 with some propriety that it is not expedient to apply this rule 

 with the same arbitrary bearing as to public roads, and the 

 reason assigned is, that the preservation of the former is solely 

 dependent on those individual tenants who use them, and Avho 

 are directly bound to maintain them, whereas in the case of turn- 

 pike and parish roads, as the public use them without distinction, 

 there are no direct influences in force to lead to carefulness and 

 timely reparation. 



It has been therefore urged that if less metalling were used in 

 the making of farm roads than the engineer would prescribe, the 

 tenant would be more careful when using not to abuse them, 

 knowing that the burden of maintenance will fall directly and 

 wholly upon himself. 



This argument, if tenable at all, can only extend, however, to 

 the quantity and description of material used. The same care 

 in forming and draining is requisite in all roads, whether private 

 or public, and when considered with regard to materials, the 

 argument will have little weight where stone or gravel is handy, 

 cheap, and good, though it may, and will, have influence in 

 localities where the other extremes of distance, price, and quality 

 prevail. 



Admitting the force of expediency in cases where materials are 

 extremely costly, it may be useful to illustrate its influence by re- 

 ference to two instances which have recently come within the 

 experience of the writer. The first was the case of a farm-road 

 in the coalmeasures clay district of Cheshire, and the second 

 (also a farm-road) on the lias, in the Vale of Belvoir. In the 

 first case unexceptionable material was obtained from the neigh- 

 bouring millstone-grit rock and delivered on the road at an 

 average cost of 25. 6(/. per cubic yard. In the second case, as no 



g2 



