CHAPTER IV. 



FAKM KOADS. 

 Materials. Specification. Maintenance. Tramways. 



THE construction and maintenance of the occupation 

 roads of the estate and farm, is a branch of engineering 

 which comes within the scope of the land agent, and on 

 which the economy of cultivation considerably depends. 



Materials. The cost of making roads depends on the 

 facilities afforded by the different geological formations of 

 a district; and the expense of maintenance is greatly 

 influenced by the mean annual rainfall of the district. The 

 formations which furnish the best materials are the granites, 

 traps, and slates of Cornwall, Devon, Wales, Westmoreland 

 and Cumberland, the Silurian formations of Radnor, 

 Carmarthen, Hereford, and Shropshire, the flint-bearing 

 chalks of some of the Southern Counties the mountain 

 limestones of Somerset, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire, 

 and Yorkshire the harder beds of the Oolite, which 

 occupies a large stretch of the Midlands and the gravel 

 beds of the drift which are scattered over the whole of 

 England. These last, where free from mixture of soil or 

 clay, furnish suitable and durable materials wherever 

 obtainable at moderate cost. The slag from smelting 

 furnaces also forms occasionally a valuable material. 

 Throughout the Oxford, Lias, Kimmeridge, and Wealden 



