556 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



digging, and to pay for the puddling or lining either at a certain price per cubic yard, 

 or per yard run of the canal. The engineer ought to inform himself thoroughly of 

 the difficulties and facilities which attend the work he is about to let, and to draw up 

 a short but explicit contract to be signed by the contractor. The prices allowed 

 ought to be fair and liberal, according to the circumstances, so that the contractor may 

 have no pretence, on account of low prices, to slight his work, particularly the pud- 

 dling; and they ought in every instance to be strictly looked after; and made to undo 

 and renew immediately any work that shall be found improperly performed. We 

 recommend it to the engineer to keep a strict account, by means of his overseers or 

 counters, of all the men's time that are employed upon the works ; distinguishing par- 

 ticularly the number upon each work, and whether employed by the day, under the 

 company, or upon the work that is let to contractors. These particulars are most es- 

 sential towards knowing what money ought to be advanced to the contractor during the 

 progress of his job, and towards informing and maturing the judgment of the engineer, 

 in the length of time that a certain number of men will be in performing any future 

 work he may have to direct ; and a calculation ought to be made in every instance of 

 the day-work, and compared with the contract price, by which alone a correct judgment 

 can be formed of the proper prices at which work ought afterwards to be let, so that the 

 laborers may receive proper wages, proportionate to their exertions, and the contractor 

 be amply paid for his time, skill, and superintendance ; and yet economy, and the in- 

 terest of the company, be duly consulted. 



3557. Barrows and wheeling planks, horsing blocks, and other implements, are 

 generally found by the company ; and it is usual to consider twenty to twenty -five yards 

 to be a stage of wheeling, and a price per cubic yard to be fixed according to the 

 number of stages that the soil is to be moved : where this distance exceeds 100 yards, 

 it will not often be eligible to perform it by wheel-barrows : and runs of plank with an 

 easy descent, if the same is practicable, should be laid for large two-wheeled barrows, 

 or trucks to be used thereon. 



3558. Where the line of a canal is to cross an extensive stratum of valuable brick earth, 

 or one of good gravel for making of roads, it will often be advisable, especially if the 

 line can be rendered more direct thereby, when setting out the canal, to cut pretty deep 

 into such materials, and even quite through the gravely if the same is practicable ; for 

 although considerable expense will in the first instance be incurred in digging and in 

 damage done for spoil banks, yet such materials as good brick earth and gravel, will in 

 almost every instance find a market as soon as the canal is opened. Such a situation of 

 the canal may prove of essential service to its trade, by enabling the adjoining pro- 

 j)rietors to work the whole thickness of their brick earth, gravel, or other useful 

 matters, and destroy but very little of the surface of the ground, and without being 

 annoyed by water, but which the canal would catch in very considerable quantities, 

 perhaps, instead of losing water by preserving a high level through porous stuff. In 

 districts where stone and gravel for making and repairing of roads are scarce, it will be 

 proper to pay the laborers certain rates per cubic yard for all the stones or gravel that 

 they may collect out during the work, and stack in proper places ; as resources for 

 making of the towing-path, and for making good the landing or ascent to the several 

 bridges, and the several pieces of new road that the engineer will have to form, 

 near to the canal bridges ; the lock banks, and all wharfs and landing places, should 

 also be covered with good gravel to render them safe and convenient for use : if 

 good gravel can in places be intersected in deep cuttings, much of the above expense, 

 as well as of cartage, may be saved, by an early use of dirt boats in the bottom of the 

 canal. 



3559. How important and various the duties of the resident engineers are, must have 

 struck every reader ; but would be much more apparent, could we enter into the subject 

 of reservoirs, feeders, aqueducts, embankments, culverts, safety gates, weirs, tunnels, 

 deep cuttings, locks, substitutes for locks, inclined planes, railways, bridges, towing- 

 paths, fences, drains, boats, towing or moving boats and trams, cranes and implements ; 

 but these, as less important for our purpose, we must leave the reader to study in the 

 works of Philips, Fulton, Chapman, Plymley, Badeslade, Kindersly, Anderson, 

 Telford, and from the article Canal, in the three principal Encyclopaedias. 



Chap. VI. 



Of the Imjn'ovement of Estates by the Establishment of Mitts, Manufactories, Villages, 



Markets, ^c. 



3560. Connected with the laying out of roads and canals, is the establishment of different 

 scenes of manufactorial industry. The forced introduction of these will be attended 



