THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



HOME-MADE ASPHALTE WALKS. 



NUMBER of inquiries have been from time to time 

 made as to the formation and durability of asphalte 

 walks, and we propose to offer some information on 

 these points. Eor kitchen gardens, or courts, or any- 

 where where a clean, smooth, durable path is an object, 

 there is hardly anything better than asphalte when properly laid 

 down. Weeds never grow upon it, which is a vast consideration m 

 a kitchen garden ; every shower of rain washes it as clean as a well- 

 swept kitchen floor ; it "has no offensive smell after it has been down 

 for a few weeks ; and it will last under the usual garden traffic for 

 twenty or thirty years. We are well acquainted with kitchen gar- 

 dens where all the walks are asphalted; they have been laid down 

 for many years, and are as smooth and even at this day as they were 

 at the beginning. Some of the shady walks amongst the shrub- 

 beries, where weeds used to grow too fast, are also done in this way, 

 and have lon<* ago become covered with a flue green moss, on which 

 one treads as°silently as on a carpet, but no weeds grow on them. 

 "We are not here speaking of asphalte put down by regular 

 asphalters, but of work done by the ordinary labourers on the 

 estate, at very little expense and trouble, as we are prepared to state 

 that the walks look just as well as those put down by the asphalters, 

 and are, if anything, more lasting. The regular tradesman, who 

 does the work by contract at from eightpence to a shilling per square 

 vard, perhaps— finding all the materials— puts too thin a " cake" 

 on and the consequence is, that the frost breaks it up, rends it in 

 every direction, and then it has to be done over again, for asphalte 

 does not patch well. We have put down in our time many hundreds 

 of yards of asphalte with our own men, and it cost us little more 

 than the gas-tar, which can sometimes be had from the nearest gas- 

 ometer for a trifle, and a few barrels will soak a great quantity of 

 ashes. Usually a good deal of trouble is gone to in draining and 

 bottoming the walks, and in putting the asphalte on at twice ; but 

 all this work and the boiling of the tar we have proved to be quite 

 unnecessary, for our pur P 03e at least. With two or three good 

 labourers, the ashes are sifted, soaked, put on, rolled, and finished 

 in a very short time. As to drainage, it must be remembered that 

 the water runs off the walks, and does not dram away ; so that all 

 that is necessary is a single drain along one side of the walk, into 

 which the water is taken by gratings at convenient places. JNo 

 rubble bottom whatever is put in. If the soil is tolerably hard and 

 solid, the asphalte is just put on it as it is, saving the cutting and 

 makin- of the edges, and a walk so made is just as good as one with 

 a foot of broken stones beneath it. The best season for the work is 

 in autumn, when the heat of the summer is over, and the trosts 

 have not set in: or in spring, after the frost has gone, and before 

 the heat comes on. The reason of this is, that in hot weather the 

 asphalte does not set so readily, and in frosty weather it is apt to be 

 disturbed and broken up before it does set. 



January. 



