404 
Roads and Highways : their History, 
hard-working and industrious some men may be, they never 
seem to be able to acquire the necessary skill in properly work- 
ing a road. It is impossible that any surveyor of roads should 
always be at hand to direct and superintend his men ; they 
must, therefore, be men that he can place reliance on for keep- 
ing their time, and using their judgment as to the use of new 
material. In the place of that constant supervision, which is 
■generally considered necessary for the direction of workmen, all 
the surveyor can do is to arrange such a system that he can at 
once tell whether any of the men employed are not performing 
their proper share of work. This can only be done by employ- 
ing a certain number of regular men, and allotting to each man 
a definite length of road, and placing the same under his care. 
One man's work can then be compared with others under similar 
circumstances, and the facts ascertained as to the relative merits 
of the men. When extra labour is necessary, this arrange- 
ment need not be disturbed, but the extra men may be placed 
under those regularly employed. On an ordinary provincial 
turnpike-road or leading highway, where good materials are 
used, an active man ought to be able to keep from three to four 
miles of road in repair, with occasional help in winter to assist 
in putting materials on. In summer he will be employed in 
cleaning out the water-tables, cutting weeds at the side of the 
road, and cleaning the dirt off the centre. 
The average cost of manual labour, materials, carting, and 
tradesmen's bills for turnpike-roads, which may be taken as the 
leading thoroughfares throughout England and VVales, is between 
40Z. and 50/. per mile, and for the highways, between IIZ. and 121. 
per mile. The difference of the two is to be accounted for by the 
fact that under the highways are included many miles on which 
the traffic is exceedingly light, and some roads on which there 
is none except that employed in the tillage of the fields past 
which they lead. ^lany of the latter are as yet nothing more 
than green lanes, receiving no repair except an occasional 
filling-in of ruts. 
The cost of maintaining a road must, in a great measure, 
depend on its situation with regard to materials — the cost of agri- 
cultural labour varying only a few shillings per week through- 
out England. The cost is necessarily enhanced where materials 
can only be procured from a distance by an expensive railway- 
journey ; but it must be borne in mind, as already pointed out, 
that the best materials that can be procured, irrespective of cost, 
are the most economical. Granite brought from a distance, at 
A cost of, perhaps, 125. to 155. a-ton, is cheaper than limestone 
or gravel at one-fourth the cost. 
