38 
Rural Roads. 
with in most cases by ample cleansing with water. Much 
may be done to improve this foothold by the use of india- 
rubber shoes or, as another authority suggests, by allowing the 
frog of the horse to reach the road surface. 
Macadam is quite unsuitable for use in towns when the 
traffic is at all heavy, and should be replaced by more solid 
and impervious material when the cost of the maintenance of 
the macadam exceeds about a shilling per square yard per 
annum. Stone pavements are durable and are much more 
easily cleansed than macadam, but are too noisy for use near 
dwellings. Next to asphalt, the pavement which is most 
nearly what is desired for use in town streets is wood paving, 
which should be of hard wood and laid directly on a carefully 
prepared concrete foundation. The costs of stone paving, 
wood paving, and asphalt paving of the best descriptions are 
approximately the same, and considerations other than those 
of cost, therefore, determine their selection. 
The draught on asphalt roadways is only two-thirds of 
that on stone setts, and only from one-fifth to two-fifths of 
that on macadam surfaces of the ordinary kind, according to 
their condition. The best kind of asphalt paving used in 
Europe is obtained in the natural form of rock, which 
is reduced to powder, laid hot, and compressed by rolling 
or trowelling. A cheaper kind is more artificial in its 
character and is laid in a semi-fluid condition. The objection 
to both these kinds of asphalt is that in certain conditions 
of the weather the surface becomes slippery, and it is not 
even with the greatest care suitable for steep gradients. It is, 
however, a perfectly sanitary pavement, preventing the pollu- 
tion of the subsoil and the upward passage of foul ground air, 
is easily cleansed with water, and dries rapidly. Objection has 
been taken to the fact that it seals the ground surface and 
may lead to a greater access of foul ground air to the houses 
on the sides of the street ; but this objection has no cogency 
if all such houses have, as they ought to have, an impervious 
stratum below the lowest floor to shut off the ground air. 
Asphaltic pavements are comparatively noiseless, the only 
sound on them being that of the horses’ feet, which is not 
greater than is desirable for the safety of pedestrians. In this 
respect it is practically the same as hard wood paving. The 
question may then be asked, Why is asphalt not more 
generally used ? The true answer appears to be first that 
municipal authorities in Great Britain have not yet seen their 
way to provide properly for the cleansing by water of the 
surface of the streets ; and, secondly, that the owners of horses 
adhere in the most conservative manner to the iron shoe, the 
origin of which is lost in the mists of antiquity. Asphaltic 
