598 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



noyed ; when the gravel road was good on the sides, the heavy carriages would go there, 

 and the light carriages would be driven on the stones from the sides again : if the centre 

 were paved, the carters would be obliged to w alk on that road to manage their horses, and 

 would be considerably annoyed by carriages, horsemen, &c. passing; but if the sides of 

 that road were paved, the carters would be enabled to walk on tlie footpath, and to 

 manage their horses without annoyance." 



S700. Paving the sides is also preferred by J. Farey, " but not the middle, as has been 

 done on the Commercial Road, the Borough Road and others. My reasons for prefer- 

 ring the sides being paved are, that it is next to impossible to compel the carters to keep 

 upon the pavement in the middle of the road ; in too many instances, the fear of 

 damage, from the swift going carriages, occasions them either to draw their carts close to 

 the sides, and walk upon the footpaths, or, what is worse, to leave tlieir horses in the 

 middle, beyond a train of carriages. The sides being paved would enable one of those 

 trains of carriages to enter London on one side of the road, and go out of it on the other, 

 without many occasions to turn out of their tracks : which circumstance of keeping nearly 

 to the same tracks, upon a well-paved road, would not be prejudicial ; but on a road 

 formed of gravel is entirely ruinous." 



370 1. Walker also prefers paving the sides, though in the case of the Commercial Road 

 he paved the centre, as already described (3699.). 



3702. Stevenson, as we have seen (3539.), is an advocate for wheel-tracks of stone, 

 as greatly lessening the draught of heavy carriages in the country, and especially in ac- 

 clivities, and avoiding the irksome noise and jolting motion of causeways in town. 

 Specimens of these tracts have been laid down in Glasgow, and they may be seen in 

 various towns in Italy. " The stones of the tracks recommended by Mr Stevenson, are of 

 a cubical form {Jig- 551.), measuring only from 6 to 8 inches in the lengthway of the 

 track, and 12 to 14 inches in depth, 18 inches in breadth at the base, and twelve inches 

 on the top or wheel-track. The stones are therefore proportionate in all their dimen- 



551 8.in. sions; for, unless they contain a mass of matter 



corresponding to their length, they will be found 

 to want strength and stability. It would hardly 

 be possible to keep slender stone rails in their 

 places, and hence the chief benefit of a connected 

 railway would be lost. On the other hand, 

 ^ g^ very large materials are difficult to be got, and 



are also more expensive in carriage and in workmanship than stones of a smaller size. 



'I'he Italian wheel-tracks are composed of stones 2 feet in breadth, and of various lengths. 



To lessen the risk of horses falling, these broad stones are kept in a rough state, by 



occasionally cutting grooves with a pick-axe upon their upper surface." {Edin. Encyc. 



art Roads.) 



3703. Mathews also has proposed a plan for a stone railway ; he proposes that the 

 stones should .be in pieces measuring 4 feet 2 inches in length, 1 1 inches in breadth at 



the top, 14 inches at the base, and 10 

 inches in depth. He has various modes 

 of connecting these stones : by a mortice 

 and tenon joint {Jig. 552.), bevelled so as 

 to prevent the joint from sinking; by a 

 bevelled joint in which the ends of the two 

 rails are made to rest on a centre or inter- 

 vening block {Jig. 553.) ; and with bevelled 

 and grooved joints, so as to prevent lateral 

 derangement, as well as sinking. {Jig. 554. ) 

 The manner of placing stones on these dif- 

 ferent methods together, of securing them 

 by a row of rubble causeway stones on each 

 side, and preserving the horsepath between, 

 may be easily conceived, (^g. 555.) Mr. 

 Mathews intended tliese railways for all the 

 principal highways in the kingdom ; but 

 the expense of the plan was one of its cliief 

 objections. It has been alleged also, that unless the cubic contents of these blocks bore a 

 greater proportion to their length, they would be deranged by the pressure of very heavy 

 carriages. {Ed. Encyc. art. Roads.) 



3704. Paving the whole or any part of a road is entirely disapproved oj by M'Jdam. 

 " The measure," he says, " of substituting pavements, for convenient and useful roads, 

 is a kind of desperate remedy, to which ignorance has had recourse." The badness or 

 scarcity of materials cannot be considered a reasonable excuse, because the same quan- 

 tity of stone required for paving is fully sufficient to make any excellent road any where; 



