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BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



touch new patterns unless ordered by the thousand dozen. 

 Farmers supply themselves at each other's auctions, take the 

 degenerate things in market, or go without. The best of 

 that class of people mean to see their way clearly before 

 going into anything. It is good for the nation that farmers 

 move slowly and surely. Now we may be certain they are 

 framing their minds for better hand road tools, to finish 

 corners and edges of the roadside which machines can't 

 touch. They are short of money, and must begin with their 

 hands as was done in M' Adam's time. 



A suggestion for a hand-roller-pick, to fit the surface of 

 old stone-roacte to receive new metal, is made here : — 



Something like the above has been used in hard ditch 

 bottoms. The same idea is applied on some steam rollers. 

 It is to be rolled across the highway to break and roughen 

 the hard old surface, or the road making hands nlay use 

 pick-axes at intervals, while they are waiting for material. 



Writers have said that M'Adam was opposed to carts with 

 broad tires. This is contrary to the truth. Before his time 

 mechanic monstrosities were as possible as they are now. 

 There were bounties by the inch on the width of cart-wheels, 

 given in the form of exemption from tolls. Very heavy 

 wagons were in use, and immense loads of freight were 

 hauled to cheapen transportation on toll roads. Somebody 

 contrived a curious conical wheel, sixteen inches wide, which 

 M'Adam condemned before the committee of Parliament, 

 because it was full of spike-heads, dragged on the shortest 

 side, and injured the roads. 



