ROADS AND PATHS 35 



to find how perfectly a system of drainage of this kind 

 protects the road, and how attractive the borders appear 

 when compared with the effect of the ordinary stone 

 gutter. It may be said, and possibly conceded, that 

 there are slopes on roads so steep that only a stone gut- 

 ter will accomplish satisfactory drainage, but the reader 

 may be sure that there are very few grades actually 

 found on roads whereon the sod- gutter system cannot 

 be used satisfactorily if properly and skillfully con- 

 structed (see page 34). 



So far as the width of roads goes in large cities, it is 

 well to be liberal. One hundred feet is not excessive 

 for streets that are leading arteries. On ordinary coun- 

 try roads, however, a width of sixteen to seventeen feet 

 is enough for the actual roadbed, exclusive of gutters 

 and sidewalk — two teams can readily pass on this width — 

 and on village lots, roads not exceeding thirteen feet or 

 even twelve feet wide can be made to suffice, in view of 

 the fact that most vehicles have an extent of five and a 

 half feet to six feet from the outside of one hub to the 

 outside of the other. The larger the place, the wider 

 should be the roads up to the point where it is felt the 

 harmony and picturesqueness of the place will be injured 

 by the obtrusive size of these features, which must, in the 

 nature of things, detract from the scenery, and should be 

 only tolerated because they are necessary. 



There is a difference of opinion among experts in 

 regard to the best method of crowning a road. By one 

 method a cross section of the road is made to exhibit a 

 convex curve or a semi-ellipse, while by another, bearing 

 the weight of testimony in its favor, two equal planes 

 of the surface slope gently to the side gutters, and meet 

 in the middle by a short connecting fiat curve. This 



