512 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part IIL 



air more readily to the metalled road ; but In roads within a farm, it is found a great 

 convenience in casting out manure, or bringing home produce, for the loaded carts to have 

 uninterrupted possession of the metalled road, and the others of the earth road. In 

 many cases, farm roads of this description are only metalled in the horse tracks 

 {Jig. 433 fl.), and wheel ruts 

 (6, b), which, on dry firm 

 bottomed land, and with care- 

 ful preservation, is found to 

 answer very well. 



3292. Horse roads are ^WMsM^^S^^^^^^^MKBBM/ 

 paths for the transit of single ^^^ ^Mm'^mmW'mlM^ll'"Jm^ 

 horses with a rider, or a back 

 load : they tu-e commonly of earth, and from six to ten feet wide : the statute width 

 is eight feet. 



S293. Footpaths are tracks for pedestrians ; sometimes metalled to the width of three 

 or four feet ; but often of the natural surface. 



3294. Rail roads are roads exclusively for the use of carriages, and are characterised 

 by a rail commonly of iron, but sometimes of wood laid along the track of each wheel, in 

 order to produce the effect of a perfectly even surface. In general, the carriages for 

 such roads, have their wheels low, and of a particular construction to tit the rails ; but in 

 some cases the rails have grooves for the use of common narrow wheels. Such roads are 

 almost exclusively in use, at coal and other great mineral works ; but some have proposed 

 to introduce them as side roads, to the more public highways. For this purpose, also, 

 it has been proposed instead of iron rails, to lay down granite stones of a foot or eighteen 

 inches in breadth, which would render them suitable for any description of wheels or 

 axles. 



3295. Paved roads are of three kinds ; those with small stones, or causeways, which 

 are most common ; those with large blocks of stone, and those with sections of timber 

 trees. The first, though almost peculiar to towns, yet form the whole of the metalled 

 road in some cases of country roads ; and in others a space of ten or twelve feet in the 

 middle, or at each side is causewayed, for the use of the heavier carriages. Broad stones 

 are sometimes used for covering part of a road, destined for the greatest part of the traf- 

 fick, or for forming wheel tracks. In the latter case, they are always squared or regularly 

 jointed, but in the former, the most irregular forms may be used. Timber causewaying, is 

 only used in entrance courts, to town mansions, for the sake of avoiding the noise made 

 by the wheels of carriages and horses' feet on stone. For this purpose timber paving is 

 excellent, and lasts for a very long time. On the continent, fine timber is used for this 

 purpose, but oak or larch would no doubt last longer. 



3296. Planked roads are formed over morasses, or in particular cases by laying down a 

 flooring of planks, on which carriages pass for temporary purposes. A permanent kind of 

 road of this description has been made by weaving (or wattling) an endless hurdle of the 

 breadth of the road, and covering it with a coating of gravel or broken stones. The advantage 

 of this mode is, that the road may be made on a bog before the substratum dries, and even 

 if it is so soft as not to bear a man. By the time the hurdle rots the base will be consoli- 

 dated and fit to bear any thing. 



3297. Approach roads and walks are roads which come under the subject of gardening. 



3298. Tlie ' term metaV in road making is applied to the stony or gravelly materials laid 

 on to form tlie main part of the road. 



Sect. II. Of the Line of Direction or laying out of Roads. 



3^99. Before carriages of burden were in use, little more was required than a path upon 

 hard ground, that would bear horses. All marshy grounds were therefore shunned ; the 

 fords of rivers were resorted to, and the inequality or circuit of the road was of much less 

 consequence, than when carriages, instead of pack-horses, began to be employed. When 

 carriages were first employed, they probably were light and narrow, and did not require to 

 have roads of any considerable breadth or firmness. And when roads had once been thus 

 traced, indolence and habit prevented any great exertions to lay them out in better lines, or 

 to repair them in any manner beyond what present convenience absolutely required. 

 When heavier carriages and greater traffic made wider and stronger roads necessary, the 

 ancient track was pursued ; ignorance and want of concert in the proprietors of the 

 ground, and, above all, the want of some general effective superintending power, conti- 

 nued this wretched practice. (Edgeworth on Roads, p. 3.) At length turnpikes were es- 

 tablislied, and laws passed investing magistrates with authority to alter established lines, so 

 that now the chief obstacle to the improvement of the lines of public roads is the expense. 



3300. In laying out roads, a variety of circumstances require to be taken into consi- 

 deration ; but the principal are evidently their line or direction, and its inclination to the 

 horizon. 



