No. 9. 



Plank Roads. 



277 



almost to supersede the use of the former. 

 Macadam roads are made of hard stone, 

 broken up with hammers into pieces about 

 an inch in diameter, and this ' metal' is 

 spread on the bed of the road to the depth of 

 six or ten inches. At first these roads are 

 heavy to travel on, exceedingly annoying- to 

 tender footed animals, and laborious for a 

 team to haul a loaded vehicle over; but in 

 time the broken stone becomes partially pul- 

 verized, and forms a mass of comparative 

 smoothness and solidity. Yet this solidity 

 is not permanent; J. \V. Brooks, Esq., Civil 

 Engineer, writes us from Detroit, that ' a 

 Macadam road, built with a sufficient quan- 

 tity of stones [say ten inches in depth of the 

 * metal,'] to be durable, will be expensive in 

 any locality; and built otherwise, it will be 

 destroyed at the breaking up of the ground 

 in the spring, or so injured as to require ex- 

 tensive repairs.' 



In Canada, public roads, &c., are under 

 the control of a ' Board of Public Works,' 

 and from the report made by commissioners 

 appointed to examine the state of the roads, 

 we learn that a computation, based upon ac- 

 tual expenditures for construction and re- 

 pairs, shows that more than three miles of 

 plank road can be made and maintained, for 

 one of stone (Macadamized). 



On the line of roads running eastwardly 

 out of the city of Toronto, a Macadam road 

 was first made, under the impression that 

 the immense travel over it would wear away 

 a plank road so rapidly as to render its fre- 

 quent removal very expensive. But the re- 

 sult of the experiment was, that within a 

 very few years a plank road was laid down 

 alongside of the Macadam, and the latter 

 used as a turn-out path! And the report to 

 the New York Senate on the subject of plank 

 roads, declares that 'experience has proven, 

 that a plank road over the same line with 

 a Macadam one, can be built and maintained 

 for less than the interest on the cost of the 

 latter, added to its yearly required repairs.' 



Hon. George Geddes, member of the New 

 York Senate, and who superintended in part 

 the Salina plank road, in speaking of the com- 

 parative value of Macadam and plank roads, 

 considers the plank vastly superior to the 

 stone structure; he says: 'I have seen a 

 Macadam road taken op, eight feet in width, 

 to make room for plank track ;' and that men 

 who have travelled over the best roads in 

 England say, ' there is not in Great Britain 

 as good a road as the Salina plank road.' 



It seems that ail experience goes to show, 

 that a horse will travel in any kind of wheel- 

 ed vehicle at an averageof one fifth faster on 

 a plank than a Macadam road, and draw at 

 ieaiitonefiflhmore freight with the same ease. 



An intelligent correspondent of the Detroit 

 Free Press says : ' A plank road near To- 

 ronto, parts of which are entirely worn 

 through, and whose sides touch a Macadam 

 road, is now in use, and is constantly occu- 

 pied by vehicles, with and without loads, in 

 preference to the stone (or Macadam) road. 

 On this road, the very beasts of burden in- 

 stinctively prefer the plank to the Macadam 

 path ; and when reined from the former to 

 the latter, if left to themselves, will imme- 

 diately run back upon the plank.' 



But the following facts, related by Henry 

 Ledyard, Esq., of Detroit, go far to show that 

 plank roads are preferable to Macadam under 

 all circumslances. At a town in New York 

 a plank road is about to be constructed, 

 where, for a reach of thirteen miles, the line 

 of road runs along a ledge of exposed rock, 

 proper for Macadamizing, which only needs 

 to be tumbled into the road-way,' ready for 

 use ! Here, if anywhere, it might be sup- 

 posed a Macadam road could be profitably 

 made. In another town of the same State, 

 ' movements are making to take up the cob- 

 ble stone pavement of a street, for a distance 

 of two miles, and lay down a plank road in 

 its stead.' 



It has already been remarked, that plank 

 roads are peculiarly adapted to low, flat, or 

 wet regions; and in such localities, practical 

 business men can construct them without the 

 expense of employing an engineer. But their 

 adaptation to a rolling and even hilly coun- 

 try, has been fully and favorably tested. As 

 their smooth and even surface opposes no 

 resistance to the wheel of a road vehicle, the 

 draught on them up an inclination is much 

 easier than on an ordinary road, demonstrat- 

 ing their ability to overcome considerable 

 elevations; the exposure of the horses to 

 slipping on such ascents, being almost en- 

 tirely obviated by a slight covering of earth 

 or sand upon the planks. On the alternate 

 plank and Macadam road at Toronto, the 

 plank portion of the road follows the same 

 inequalities of surface of the ground, that 

 existed before the Macadam road was super- 

 seded by it ; and the writer in the Detroit 

 Free Press says it rises and descends hills ©f 

 much sharper grade than the foot of Wood- 

 ward Avenue in the city of Detroit. Thomas 

 G. Alvord, Esq., member of the Legislature, 

 and superintendent of the Salina road, writes 

 us, ' We pass over rises in our road (short, it 

 is true,) of one foot in ten ;' and further, 

 'that it is far easier to go over the same 

 elevation on a plank road than on a common 

 dirt road.' 



Lord Sydenham having become impressed 

 with the great utility of plank roads during 

 his residence in Russia, (which country we 



