568 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



3525. In Ireland, very little attention was paid to the art of road-making before the 

 establishment of the Dublin Society ; but the subject was treated of in the early volumes 

 of their Transactions, and some useful instructions there given, as it is generally under- 

 stood, by R. L. Edgeworth ; and the surface as well as substrata of that country being 

 singularly favourable for road-making, the art soon began to make considerable progress. 

 This was greatly owing to the exertions of Edgeworth, well known as a scientific engineer, 

 and as the author of a tract on roads published in 1810. 



3526. The extraordinary increase of toll duties in England, having been felt as a very 

 heavy burthen by the landed interest during the last twenty years, has drawn the attention 

 of various persons to the subject of roads, and given rise to important improvements, 

 both in laying them out, and in forming and repairing them. By far the most useful of 

 these may be considered the mode of fonning practised since 1816, by L. M'Adam of 

 Bristol ; for which its author was rewarded by parliament. That mode is now, with more 

 or less variation, adopted in a considerable number of districts in the three kingdoms, and, 

 together with the attention and emulation it excites, promises to effect an entire revolution 

 in the state of the public roads every where. At the same time it is but candid to state, 

 vnth Paterson of Montrose, author of two tracts (1819 and 1822) on the subject, that in 

 many districts a considerable improvement had taken place, previously to the time of 

 M*Adam, in the state of the roads, simply from a greater attention being made to keep 

 them dry by under-drainage, to break the stones small, and constantly to obliterate the 

 ruts. 



3527. But M^AdanCs plan of making roads promises to be valuable as a substitute for 

 pavement or causeways in towns ; at the same time its value, as compared with the most 

 improved methods of paving, cannot be considered as finally determined. 



3528. In the following view of the present state of knowledge as to roads we shall avoid 

 entirely that part of the subject which relates to national or parochial management, and 

 confine ourselves to the kinds, the direction or line, the form, the miterials, the execu- 

 tion, and the repairs. 



Sect. I. Differerd Kinds of Roads. 



3529. Though all roads agree in being tracks of passage from one point to another, yet 

 they differ in their magnitude, construction, and other modes of adaptation for that pur- 

 pose. Most good roads consist of two parts ; one " metalled " or coated with stones for 



^34 a vv^i ^^^ "^ ^^ carriages and horses 



{fig. 534. a) ; another of common 

 earth or soil, as a border to the 

 metalled part (6), or for the use of 

 pedestrians ; and probably a footpath for the latter (c). Several kinds of roads are distin- 

 guished by the relative proportions of these two parts ; but some also are characterised 

 by other circumstances. 



3530. National roads, or highways, are such as communicate between the capital 

 cities and sea-ports ot a country, and are those of the greatest magnitude. In Britain, 

 the metalled part of such roads, where they are most frequented, as within a few miles of 

 large towns, is from 30 to 50 and even to 60 feet wide, with footways on each side of 

 12 feet wide or upwards, and in no case is the metalled part of the road narrower than 

 20 feet; that width being requisite to admit of one loaded waggon passing another. 

 Many or most of these nari-ower national roads are without footpaths, and often want a 

 sufficient bordefing of earth road, or footpath. 



3531 . Parochial roads may be considered as secondary highways, deriving their name 

 from the circumstance of being made and supported by the parish in which they are 

 situated ; whereas the others are the work of government, or of the counties in which they 

 are situated, and are supported by tolls levied on carriages and animals passing over them. 



3532. Ladies are parish or private roads, generally narrow, and often either not me- 

 talled at all, or very imperfectly so ; sometimes they are called drift-ways, but that term 

 is more properly applied to the green or unmetalled space which runs parallel to any 

 made road, for the passage of flocks and herds. 



3533. Estate roads are such as are made by landed proprietors on their own territory, 

 for the purpose of intercommunication and connection with public roads. 



3534. A farm-road is either one which leads to a farmery, from a public road, or which 

 leads from the farmery to different parts of the farm. Such roads are never narrower 

 than 16 feet, to admit of two carriages passing each other; but they are often only half 

 metalled, presenting a turf road for summer, dry weather, and for empty carriages and 

 foot passengers, and a metalled or winter road for winter and loaded carriages. In a 

 road from a highway to a farmery, it may often be advisable to place the metalled road in 

 the middle, and keej) tlie earth road at each side, on account of admitting the sun and 

 air more readily to the metalled road ; but in roads within a farm, it is found a great 

 convenience in carting out manure or bringing home produce, for the loaded carts to have 



