Construction, Cost, Repair, and Management. 405 
tlie road ; and wherever one of these grips is made, there is^ 
adjoining it in the rut, a hole into which every wheel jolts down^ 
increasing the draught of the horse and the unevenness of the 
road. 
Highway surveyors and their men are far too apt to keep the 
surface of the roads too round, under the false impression that 
the water will get off more quickly. The effect of making a road 
too convex is to drive all the traffic on the centre, the sides being 
too steep to allow a vehicle to move there in comfort. In a road 
that is too convex there is, in addition to the wear and tear from 
the downward pressure of the wheels, a lateral wear from the 
tendency of the wheels to slip sideways, and so to be continually 
grinding away the sides of the ruts and making them wider and 
deeper. A good road, as already mentioned, should be kept in 
the form of an ellipse, that is, nearly flat in the middle, with a 
steeper inclination towards the sides, where should be formed a 
proper water-table or gutter, with an edge cut in the grass like 
that of a garden-path, openings being left at intervals to let the 
water get away to the ditches. Experience shows that a road 
kept in this form will dry very much more quickly than if kept 
in the ordinary way ; and although it may seem absurd to recom- 
mend that a road should have its sides kept as neatly trimmed 
as those in a gentleman's park, yet in the long run it will be 
found not onlv to have a more workmanlike appearance, but also 
to cost far less than the slovenly plan followed in some places of 
chipping off the whole of the grass from the sides of the road 
from the hard material to the ditch, thus removing, as it Avere, the 
abutment of the arch of the road, and allowing the material to 
squeeze out laterally. The sides of the water-table not only act 
as a support to the road, but also prevent the loose stones from 
being kicked into the ditches. The water-tables require cleaning- 
out once every year, and this is best done immediately after 
harvest. The roots of the grass or weeds that may have grown 
are then destroyed, and have not a chance of growing again before 
the wet weather of winter. This work can always be let by task- 
work, a man being able to properly clean out and trim from 12 
to 14 chains per day, or where no water-table has been formed 
before, to set out, form, and trim half that quantity in a day. 
A reason for the excessive cost of labour is the employment, 
in many parishes, of paupers and old men unfit for work, with 
a view of economising the rates. It will be found on trial that 
this course is neither efficient nor economical. Nothing requires 
more judgment on the part of a surveyor than the selection of 
men for keeping roads in repair. Some men have a special 
aptitude for the work, and will keep the road in better repair 
f than others who use double the quantity of material. However 
