No. 4.] COUNTRY ROADS. 249 



glad to hear from him. A number of gentlemen have been 

 invited to come here, and, if any of them are present, we 

 shall be very glad to hear from them before I call upon any- 

 body to speak. 



F. W. Sargent (of Amesbury). We have present with 

 us Mr. Mann of Methuen, who I understand has just com- 

 pleted a large contract for road making. 



Charles W. Mann (of Methuen). I will not speak 

 about the work I have done ; perhaps it will show for itself. 

 It is only a small job. In our town of Methuen we are 

 becoming greatly interested in good roads. The beginning 

 of that interest was perhaps two years ago, when our town 

 warrant had an article in it calling for an appropriation of 

 ten thousand dollars for pavement. That is likely to inter- 

 est any small town. But there were some other articles, 

 and they were referred to a committee of three, of which I 

 had the pleasure of being one. After the committee was 

 appointed we went down to Bridgeport, and, through the 

 information obtained from Mr. B. D. Pierce, .the street 

 commissioner of Bridgeport, we have got started in a way 

 of building streets at a very low cost. On our visit there he 

 took us over some fifteen or twenty miles of streets which 

 were in better condition than we had ever seen in any city of 

 its size. His method of building is first to have a well-drained 

 road-bed ; it seems to make very little difference to him 

 what the material is. He will take any old road, and work 

 it so that it will show a crown of from twelve to eighteen 

 inches, which makes a perfect water-shed. Then he rolls it 

 thoroughly with a steam roller, which gives a very solid, 

 hard bed. Then one coating of two-inch crushed stone is 

 applied, just so they will cover the ground, making a coat- 

 ing two inches thick. That is screened stone of even size. 

 Then upon that, when thoroughly rolled, is placed a layer 

 of smaller stone, perhaps crushed to the size of an inch. 

 Then the last coat is applied of screened stone, such as are 

 used in this city for private walks and sidewalks. That 

 coating is applied and thoroughly watered and rolled until 

 the water will flush in front of the roller. If you can find 

 sixty miles of driveway built for the sum which he told me 

 those roads cost, which I think was less than two hundred 



