292 
Roads . 
I have now performed my promise, although in a manner much 
less full and systematical than I could have wished. I have only 
to add a request, that you will excuse the marks of haste which 
you may observe, and receive this letter as a proof of my anxiety to 
be useful to the public. 
I am, very respectfully, yours, 
B. H. LATROBE, 
Surveyor of the public buildings of the U. States . 
APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING PAPER. 
THE above report, being writtep for a specific purpose, does 
hot contain all that information on the method of making public 
roads, which is so evidently wanted. I will therefore offer to you 
a few further remarks, by way of appendix to the report. 
A. 
A road of twenty feet wide, in the paved part, and having on 
'"each side five feet cleared and levelled, is for all the purpose of 
travelling sufficient. But such a road does not admit of travel- 
ling excepting on the paved part ; because the wheels of all our 
carriages run 5 feet 3 inches nearly, distant from each other, in 
the rut. A summer road is therefore out of the question $ and 
indeed, unless the summer road be wide enough to admit two car- 
riages to pass each other, the ease of travelling upon it is dear- 
ly purchased by the necessity of turning off and on to it, even if it 
could possibly be an uniformly good road in good weather, and had 
all the advantages which your very judicious correspondent, O. E„ 
In your 3d No. (October 1813) suggests. 
The summer road is an object well worthy of attention in our 
country. If judiciously made, it will, in the middle states, and in 
common seasons, be a good road from May to the middle of July. 
The rains which fall in July and August would occasionally render 
it less eligible than the paved road ; but from the end of August to 
the middle of November, often until Christmas, with the exception 
of a week or ten days about the equinox, it w ould again be the pre- 
ferable road. During the month of January, the frost would ge- 
nerally give it solidity for a fortnight or three weeks ; but from 
the first of February until some time in April, the breaking up of 
the frost, and the variable weather, would prevent its being 
much used. To make it useful, it is necessary, that it should not 
be the receptacle cf the wash of the paved road, by being couth 
