bo MECHANICS. 



foot in 20. On hill-sides tho sloj^e should all be toward 

 the liigher ground, as in fig. 72. 



Hard and durable roads are made on the plan of Telford. 

 Their foundation is rounded stones, placed upright, with 

 the smaller or sharper ends upward. Tiie smaller stones 



of road for hillsides. 



are placed near the sides, and the larger at the centre, 

 thus giving to the road a convex form. The spaces 

 are then filled in with small broken stone, and the whole 

 covered with the same material or with gravel. The 

 pressure of wagons crowds it compactly between the 

 stones, and forms a very hard mass. 



IMPORTANCE OF GOOD KOADS. 



The principles of road-making should bo better under- 

 stood by the community at large. Farmers are deeply 

 interested in good roads. Nearness to market, and facili- 

 ties for all other kinds of communication, are worth a 

 great deal, often materially affecting the price of land 

 and its products. The difference between traveling ten 

 miles through deep mud, at two miles i^er hour, with half 

 a load, and traveling ten miles over a fine road, at five 

 miles per hour, with a full load, should not be forgotten. 



" In the absence of such facilities," says Gillespie, " the 

 lichest productions of nature waste on the spot of their 

 growth. The luxuriant crops of our western prairies are 

 sometimes left to decay on the ground, because there are 

 no rapid and easy means of conveying them to market. 

 The rich mines in the northern part of the State of New 



