88 Farm Roads on Strong Soils. 



for the materials. In dealing with homogeneous clays the use of 

 faggots is much to be reprehended. Their elasticity keeps the 

 base of the road in a constant fret and soft state, causing the clay 

 to rise and the metalling to sink between the branches and twigs 

 of which the faggots are composed. 



It is quite unnecessary to enforce the advantage of surface- 

 draining in the maintenance of roads. Practical men all agree 

 in the importance of keeping the surface free from standing 

 water, although the means adopted for the purpose are different. 

 In France, Switzerland, and Northern Italy, the best public roads 

 are made of a convex shape, and are most rigidly preserved in 

 that shape. Perhaps the most remarkable feature in Napoleon's 

 great roads is the perfection of their surface-drainage. In great 

 Britain it would appear that several engineers of celebrity have 

 advocated the adoption of roads transversely flat as the better 

 suited for quick traffic, but Telford always adhered to the convex 

 shape, and some of our best turnpike roads afford evidence of 

 his sagacity in the art of road-making. Under any circumstances 

 the convex shape will be deemed preferable for farm-roads in con- 

 sequence of a space being necessary on each side of the metalling, 

 which it is most desirable shall be kept hard and dry for occa- 

 sional use when carts and waggons meet, and this object cannot 

 be gained Avithout there is a good inclination from the centre of 

 the road to the side ditches. 



It is too frequently the habit to treat these side spaces as so 

 mvich waste on which to collect road scrapings, manure, soil, 

 and so forth, and to place there the materials for the repairs until 

 such accumulations raise the sides higher than the metalled 

 centre, and so convert the road into a trough — the very opposite 

 of what Avas intended by its convex construction. 



The whole formation (from C to C — see fig., p. 85) should stand 

 in bold relief above the adjacent ground-surface, in order that both 

 sun and wind may have uninterrupted effect in drying the surface. 



For this reason no fence other than an open wire or post-and- 

 rail fence should be allowed to stand on the sunny side of an 

 internal farm-road. As the cost of making a road will very ma- 

 terially depend on the care with which the under-draining is 

 perfected, so will the cost of maintaining it depend upon the 

 degree of care with which its convexity is kept up and means 

 adopted for admitting to its entire breadth the full influence of 

 sun and air. 



With these general remarks we Avill proceed to detail the mode 

 of operating by which the foregoing principles may be brought 

 io bear. 



Having set out the course of the intended road by a centre 

 line of stakes F, the distances from that line to the edges of 

 the metalling B and the side ditches C K should be carefully 



