536 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



90 well as to scatter them with the shovel ; and as it is of considerable importance to 

 have them well mixed, I would by ail means recommend the mode best calculated for 

 that purpose," 



3438. Rolling newly laid on metals is generally approved of. The roller used should 

 not be less than of four or five feet in diameter, a smaller size, especially in the use of 

 gravel, being apt to drag and force the loose materials before it. Some have attempted 

 to keep roads in order by occasionally harrowing and- then rolling them ; but the best 

 judges are of opinion with Jolm Farey, {^Evidence, ^e. 1819) that a roller cannot be be- 

 neficially used upon a road at any other times but after new coating it with materials, or 

 after a frost, or when the sticking of materials to the wheels may have loosened up tlie 

 stratum. 



Sect. IV. Of 2)aved Roads. 



3439. Causewat/s and pavements are chiefly made use of in towns, and may therefore 

 be considered as belonging more to architecture than to agriculture. But as it is the opi- 

 nion of some of the first engineers that pavements might be introduced with advantage on 

 the public roads for some distance from the larger towns, we shall shortly consider this 

 subject with reference to that object. Paving, as applied to roads, is therefore to be con- 

 sidered as a substitute for a part or the whole of the metalled part of the road, and not 

 as occupying every part of its width or site, as in the case of streets. 



3440. For roads near capital or great commei-cial towns^ paving, according to Edgeworth , 

 . is the only certain method yet known that gives sufficient hardness, smoothness, and per- 

 manency to a road. B. and J. Farey are of the ^ame opinion, and the latter considers it 

 would be proper to pave the sides of all the principal entrances into London. Walker, 

 who was the engineer of the Commercial road, ten feet of the centre of which is paved 

 with granite, and has given great satisfaction for upwards of 16 years, is a great advocate 

 for paving. The advantage, he says, of paving part of a road where the traffick is great, 

 and the materials of making roads bad or expensive, is not confined to improving the con- 

 veyance for heavy goods and reducing the horses' labor ; but as the paving is always 

 preferred for heavy carriages, the sides of a road are left for light carriages, and are kept 

 in much better repair than otherwise they could possibly be. It is not overstating the 

 advantage of the paving, but rather otherwise, to say, that taking the year through, two 

 horses will do more work, with the same labor to themselves, upon a paved road, than 

 tliree upon a good gravelled road, if the traffick upon the gravel road is at all considerable, 

 and if tlie effect of this, in point of expense, is brought into figures, the saving of the ex- 

 pense of carriage will bo found to be very great when compared with the cost of the 

 paving. If the annual tonnage upon the Commercial road is taken at 250,000 tons, and 

 at the rate of only 35. per ton from the docks, it could not upon a gravelled road be done 

 under 4^. 6rf., say however 45., or \s. per ton difference, making a saving of 12,500/., or 

 nearly the whole expense of the paving in one year. The introduction of paving, there- 

 fore, would, in many cases, be productive of great advantage, by improving the gravel 

 road, reducing the expense of repairs, and causing a saving of horses' labor much be- 

 yond,what there is any idea of. 



3441. Telford considers that it would be of advantage to pave a part of the centre of 

 great public roads ; and in conformity with this principle, when forming a gravel road, 

 he lays eight or ten feet of it in the centre with stones. 



3442. The part of the road most desirable to be 2)aved, according to B. Farey, is the 

 sides. " If the centre was paved," he says, "the light carriages would be much an- 

 noyed ; when the gravel road was good on tiie sides, the heavy carriages would go there, 

 and the light carriages would be driven on the stones from the sides again ; if the centre 

 was paved, the carters would be obliged to walk on that road to manage their horses, and 

 would be considerably annoyed by carriages, horsemen, &c. passing : but if the sides of 

 that road were paved,, the carters would be enabled to walk on the foot-path, and to 

 manage their horses without annoyance." 



3443. Paving the sides is also preferred by J. Farey, " but not the middle, as has been 

 done on the Commercial road, and Borough stones and road. My reasons for pre- 

 ferring the sides being paved are, that it is next to impossible to compel the carters to 

 keep upon the pavement in the middle of the road, in too many instances ; the fear of 

 damage, from the swift going carriages, occasions them either to draw their carts close to 

 the sides, and walk upon the footpaths, or, what is worse, to leave their horses in the mid- 

 dle, beyond a train of carriages. The sides being paved, would enable one of those trains 

 of carriages to enter London on one side of the road, and go out of it on the other, with- 

 out many occasions to turn out of their tracks, which circumstance of keeping nearly to 

 the same tracks, upon a well-paved road, would not be prejudicial ; but on a road formed 

 of gravel is entirely ruinous." 



3444. Walker also prefers paving the sides, though in the case of the Commercial road 

 he paved the centre, as already described (3440.). 



