ECONOMY OF GOOD ROADS. 245 



of a city, or on the roads of the country, does twice as much 

 work as the American horse similarly employed in America. 

 This is the patent, undeniable fact. JS[o man can fail to see it 

 who has his eyes about him. How does he do it ? Why does 

 he do it ? These are most important questions to an American. 

 Is the English horse better than the American ? Not at all. Is 

 he overworked ? I have seen no evidence that he is. I have 

 seen but one lame horse in London. The simple explanation is 

 that the Englishman has invested in perfect and permanent roads 

 what the American expends in perishable horses that require to 

 be fed. We are using to-day, in the little town of Springfield, 

 just twice as many horses as would be necessary to do its busi- 

 ness if the roads all over the town were as good as Main Street 

 is from Ferry to Central. We are supporting hundreds of horses 

 to drag loads through holes that ought to be filled, over sand 

 that should be hardened, through mud that ought not to be .per- 

 mitted to exist. We have the misery of bad roads, and are ac- 

 tually or practically called upon to pay a premium for them. 

 It would be demonstrably cheaper to have good roads than poor 

 ones. It is so here, A road well built is easily kept in repair. 

 A mile of good macadamized road is more easily supported than 

 a poor horse." 



Other results of Morin's experiments are as follows : — 



1. The force required to draw a vehicle, is directly propor- 

 tional to the load and inversely so to the diameter of the wheels ; 

 in other more common words, the tractive force increases in the 

 same ratio that the load increases, and the diameters of the 

 wheels decrease. 



2. On a paved or well built macadam road, the tractive force 

 is independent of the width of the tires, provided the same is 

 more than three or four inches. On compressible roads, such 

 as new gravel, on a meadow, &c., the tractive force diminishes 

 with an increase in the width of the tires. 



3. Other circumstances being equal, the tractive force is the 

 same for vehicles with and without springs as long as the horses 

 are not moving faster than a walk. 



4. On paved and well macadamized roads the tractive force 

 increases with the velocity, according to the law, that beyond a 

 velocity of 2^ miles per hour (23.31 feet per second) the in- 

 crease of the tractive force is in direct proportion to the in- 



