120 Landscape Gardening 



yet nothing would improve our roads at so small a cost as 

 tile or stone drains under the road-bed: and no matter how 

 good the surface material, a perfect road cannot be made 

 without perfect drainage. If the land is very wet and full 

 of springs, a line of tile on both sides of the road-bed, not 

 less than 3I feet below the surface, may be needed. See 

 Figs. 57 and 58. If the road is on a slope, the tile should 

 be placed a little above the upper gutter to cut off all water 

 that would flow to the surface. 



2. A layer of stones from six inches to one foot in thick- 

 ness placed at a depth of two or three feet below the level of 

 the road and well packed in at the bottom, provides good 

 drainage for a time and makes a very solid foundation upon 

 which to place smaller stones and a top layer of gravel six 

 to eight inches deep. But for ordinary road-making this 

 foundation will not be required if the surface-drainage and 

 underdrainage are well attended to. 



3. Good materials for road-making are often difficult to 

 obtain without considerable expense, but with the good 

 foundation resulting from thorough drainage fairly good 

 roads are sometimes made with poor surface material. 



Broken-stone Roads 



The best material for a permanent road is undoubtedly 

 broken stone, and it will generally be found the cheapest in 

 the end; and next to this is clean sharp gravel with more 

 or less small stones intermixed. To make the broken-stone 

 road requires the investment of considerable capital in stone- 

 crushers and heavy steam-rollers, which is beyond the 

 means of small towns. 



The assistance now being offered by many States to 

 suburban districts in the construction of State roads made 

 on the most approved principles will lead to rapid progress 



