ROAD engineers: 35 



while in the event of any difference of opinion on 

 the point between himself and the stone-breaker, he 

 had the means for conclusively settling the point on 

 the spot. Women, boys, and old men past hard labour, 

 Mr. McAdam said, could sit down and break stones into 

 small pieces not exceeding six ounces in weight. They 

 should be broken at the sides, and not on the road ; 

 notwithstanding which, the latter mode is practised 

 in some of the by-roads, even at the present time. 



With reference to the manner of putting the stones 

 on to the road when broken, he was decidedly against 

 any mixture of earth, clay, chalk, or any other matter 

 that would imbibe water, or be affected by frost, as 

 being superfluous, and generally injurious ; as good 

 stone, well broken, would always coinbine by its own 

 roughness into a solid substance with a smooth surface 

 that would not be affected by the vicissitudes of 

 weather or the action of wheels. 



The soundness of this advice was demonstrated in 

 one year. When a hard frost was succeeded by a 

 sudden thaw, a great number of roads broke up, and 

 the wheels penetrated into the original soil, and those 

 roads in which chalk was a component part became 

 nearly impassable ; even roads made over chalky soils 

 gave way in many places, while not one of the roads 

 which had been thoroughly made according to 

 McAdam's directions had given way. 



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