610 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE 



Part III. 



is between wet and dry, particularly in heavy foggy weather, and after a frost ; by which 

 sticking of the wheels, the Whitechapel-road is often, in a short time, dreadfully torn and 

 loosened up ; and it is for remedying this evil that I have, for more than eight years 

 past, occasionally watered the road in winter. As soon as the sticking and tearing up of 

 the materials is observed to have commenced, several water-carts are employed upon 

 these parts of the road, to wet the loamy and glutinous matters so much, that they will 

 no longer adhere to the tire of the wheels, and to allow the wheels and feet of the horses 

 force down and again fasten the gravel-stones: the traffic, in the course of four to 

 twenty-four hours after watering, forms such a sludge on the surface, as can be easily 

 raked off by wooden scrapers, which is performed as quickly as possible ; after which the 

 road is hard and smooth. The advantages of this practice of occasional winter watering 

 have been great ; and it might, I am of opinion, be adopted with like advantages on the 

 other entrances into London, or wherever else the traffic is great, and the gravel-stones 

 are at times observed to be torn up by the sticking of the wheels. 



3753. One of the best constructed watering ban-els {Jig. 569.) is that used on the 

 Uxbridge-road, in which the water is delivered with the greatest regularity from a cast 



iron trough (a), so as to cover a space of nine feet in width. The water is turned 

 off and on by a lever at the fore-end of the barrel (6) in the usual manner. 



3754. Washing orjlooding roads, with a view to cleaning them, has been proposed by 

 Jessop and some other engineers ; but it is evidently a mode that can only be adopted 

 in particular situations, and the advantages which it would have over clean scraping does 

 not appear. 



3755. Rolling, as a mode of preserving roads, is recommended by various writers on 

 the subject ; and appears to be useful on some roads after being loosened by frost. In 

 general, however, it is chiefly applicable after repairs, such as filling in ruts or laying on 

 a coat of new materials. Rolling has also been employed to consolidate snow on roads : 

 it is said to indurate the snow so much, that it becomes a smooth hard body on which 

 the wheels of carriages make but little impression, and the materials of the road are pre- 

 served. When a thaw happens, the whole of the snow is scraped off by snow-ploughs 

 or scrapers, and not being allowed to melt on the metals, they are said to remain un- 

 loosened. This plan is said to be general in America, and appears to have been tried, 

 in one instance, in the north of Scotland, with success. 



3756. A road roller should be of large diameter, perhaps not less than five feet : to 

 facilitate its turning, it may be made in three lengths ; and the only material is cast iron, 

 with a large wooden box over. 



3757. Biddle's machine for repairing roads {fig. 570.) consists of three cylindrical rollers, mounted upon 

 axles, in a frame, to be drawn by one or more horses. The rollers are placed obliquely, side by side, 

 but running in parallel positions ; their axes receding a little behind each other : these rollers are 

 intended to pass over the surface of the road, for the purpose of pressing the broken stones, gravel, 

 and other materials, close together, so as to produce a solid or compact road with a smooth surface. In the 

 front of the rollers a long scraper is placed, crossing the frame obliquely, for the purpose of collecting up 

 and conducting away the mud, and the slush, to the side of the road ; and at the back part of the apparatus, 

 there is a perforated cylinder, intended to take up the softer, or muddy parts of the road, and deposit 



