No. 4.] COUNTRY ROADS— APPENDIX. 



26; 



"porous drainage layer," no smooth wheeling can result. 

 Nature abhors vacuums in the foundations of a road, as the 

 public will when it fully understands how the fine top finish 

 slowly rattles into the open-work bottom, leaving a rough 

 surface for travel. 



The popular mind is so confused concerning so-called 

 "Telford" and "Macadam" roads, that some things are 

 done which would be funny were they not so horribly 

 serious in their consequences. We have seen " Telford " road 

 tried with the big stone rip-rapped, sloping or "shingled" 

 in this way, under the wealthiest municipal engineering : — 



£l x y^g,Sfcj&&£*< o? &£ = b?£ "^hztdr- 



The above section is, of course, lengthwise of the road. 

 Seeing that "regular Telford stone" (as administered in 

 New England), when struck by loaded wheels, would drop 

 into clay, all that will give room for while softened by water 

 and frost, some " practical man "designed this scheme to 

 prevent the trouble by friction. On this road maybe the 

 travel should be all one ivay! 



Some other " practical man," and a person of considerable 

 energy and resolution, no doubt, discovering that neither 

 of the above methods were good for anything as practiced, — 

 though either might stand if built solid, — concluded it was 

 just as well to throw the bottom stone down flat, and helter- 

 skelter on the clay, since he always found them dislocated 

 in his old street diggings. The following is a fair sample of 

 his best work on this plan, after one open winter : — 



The surface of the above cross-section is too smooth. No 

 doubt the steam roller would do such work as that much 

 temporary good ; but can we afford to build roads or streets 

 that are constantly settling, and give them up entirely to 



