PREFACE 



This bulletin was prepared at the request of the chairman of the state 

 museum committee for a report on the road materials of New York. 

 Having ascertained what might be worth publishing on this subject, it 

 appeared desirable to add a short discussion on the road problem in our 

 state. 



It has been the writer's aim to make the pamphlet as brief as possible 

 and therefore easily read. He has endeavored to discuss concisely what 

 appeared to him the salient points of the problem, and his purpose has 

 been rather to bring to public attention, facts not generally appreciated 

 than to discuss matters of common knowledge. 



In preparing this report the writer has communicated with about two 

 thousand quarrymen, and has acquired much information concerning local 

 variations in rock used as road metal, but it does not seem pertinent to 

 this preliminary publication to discuss details which might obscure the 

 main points. It seems also inadvisable to publish statements which dis- 

 criminate between the products of various quarries until further study 

 has established their correctness beyond all possibility of criticism. 

 These details are therefore reserved for future publication. 



The report of the special committee on good roads, transmitted to the 

 legislature Jan. 14, 1896, is recommended to the attention of all who 

 wish to inform themselves on the details of the present situation in New 

 York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and other states. 



Attention is also called to the publications of the Bureau of Road 

 Inquiry of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



It being impossible with the museum funds at hand to erect a labora- 

 tory for the testing of New York road materials, the writer applied for 

 assistance to the Massachusetts Highway Commission, which courteously 

 and generously agreed to test some representative samples of New York 

 road material. 



In the following pages the Massachusetts Commission has been quoted 

 exclusively, not from a desire to ignore the work in other states, such as 

 New Jersey and Connecticut, but because the problems in Massachusetts 

 are similar to those in New York, and the Commission in question 

 seemed to have studied and reported on the situation it had to deal with 

 in a more detailed and exhaustive way. 



To Prof. N. S. Shaler and the other Highway Commissioners of 

 Massachusetts, the writer desires to express his deep obligations for many 

 favors received. 



FREDERICK J. H. MERRILL 



Albany, Sept. 1, 1897 



