360 



Turnpike and Parish Roads. 



proper attention to tliis point, I am quite sure a mile of road may 

 be kept in better condition without fresli materials than it v/ould 

 be with 60/. worth of materials put on in the usual careless 

 manner upon each mile. 



The next points for consideration are the manner of procuring 

 the materials, and the time and method pursued in laying them 

 on the road. 



By the latter end of the month of February it is generally 

 determined by the committee of management with the assistance 

 of the sub-surveyor the quantity of gravel that each separate mile- 

 man's portion of road will require for the following year, and adver- 

 tisements are issued accordingly for such quantities to be delivered 

 in depots on the sides of the road at equal distances, each depot con- 

 taining, when properly trimmed up, according to given form in the 

 contract, so many square yards or loads of gravel, to be delivered 

 ready broken and sifted, and free from dirt or hogging,* the whole 

 to be delivered prior to the 1st of August, except only on such 

 narrow part of the road, or through towns or villages, where the 

 heaps cannot lie without inconvenience to the public; in which 

 case so many hundred yards remain by side of pit, or other con- 

 venient place, to be carted on the road at such times as the sub- 

 surveyor may call upon the contractor to do. Thus it will be 

 perceived that, the whole quantum of material being brought to 

 the sides of the road some months previous to being required for 

 use, and every depot containing the same quantity, trimmed up 

 in the same form, a very trifling variation in the size of any one 

 of the depots is immediately perceivable ; and then it is that 

 the full quantum of gravel charged to the trust is brought upon 

 the road. Having now every mile-man's portion of road fur- 

 nished with depots full of gravel, we will proceed to state how 

 that gravel is to be laid on. The depots on the Western road 

 are placed about 36 yards one from the other, and are from 14 to 

 18 yards long; and during the time when the traffic was very 

 great each depot was supposed to contain sufficient to coat the 

 road entirely across from water-table to water-table about 1 J inch 

 thick, to the amount of 1 8 yards in each depot, which was laid on 

 the road by barrows. 



According to the different soils and materials for repair, differ- 

 ent seasons may be chosen for laying on the general annual coat- 

 ing-. On the Western road the first rains after the middle of 

 October is the most favourable time to commence ; but m no 

 case should it be deferred after the second week in November, 

 otherwise the frost may come before the material is sufficiently 

 worked down, and the road will show it during the whole of the 



* Local terra for the siftings or fine part of gravel. 



