NEW 
- 
“ TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND.” 
SERIES. 
VOL. II. 
ALBANY, MAY, 1845. 
No. 5. 
TOE CULTIVATOR 
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.foreign (forresponbencc. 
MR. HORS FORD’S LETTERS—No. III. 
Wood 
Pavements in London—Journey from London to 
Giessen—The Vineyards of the Rhine. 
Giessen, Germany, Dec. 1844. 
Mr. Tucker —In Oxford street, Cheapside, and seve¬ 
ral other streets of London, the wood paving is so ex¬ 
cellent that I inquired the nature of the materials used, 
and gave a little time to ascertaining the manner in which 
the blocks are prepared and laid down. Deal is sawed 
into six inch square scantling, and then the scantling 
sawed diagonally into blocks. These are then pinned 
together in parcels about a yard square, and additional 
strength given by a system of little staples. The larger 
parcels are then laid down and also firmly bound togeth 
er. Alternate rows are inclined in opposite directions, 
and the blocks are set diagonally across the street. The 
bed upon which the pavement rests, is rendered exceed¬ 
ingly firm by excavation to the depth of three or four 
feet, and then filling with stone first and then sand. 
Fig. 48 shows the 
mode of connection by 
staples and pins. 
The paving with wood 
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ZL l 
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[Fig. 47.] 
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Fig. 47 shows the pavement, and the foundation. It 
presents also the blind gutters, a cast iron trough, a cross 
section of which is given in fig. 49. 
[Fig. 48.] 
is extending through the great thoroughfares, 
and I was told, would probably replace the 
stone from the Bank to Regent’s Park, in a 
[Fig, 49,] few years. It differs from the pavement in 
New-York in three particulars which I now remember. 
The blocks are smaller, of a different shape, and differ¬ 
ently disposed. They are inclined, while the blocks of 
the pavement in Nassau street, and generally all that I 
had before seen, are vertical. This alternate leaning in 
one direction and the other, would prevent displacement, 
while it would permit the rain, not descending to the 
gutters, an easier passage between them. 
The stone pavements are generally better than those 
of New-York and most American cities, in that the 
blocks are rectangular, presenting a more uniform and 
flat surface, than can be made with round stones. 
From London bridge, I embarked in Her Majesty’s 
steamer Earl Liverpool, for Ostende, at three o’clock in 
the morning. A passage of thirteen hours brought me 
to the Belgian wharf, and I was on (he continent. The 
land is just above the surface of the sea, and it was no 
easy task to distinguish in the mist of the evening, the 
outline of the coast from a thousand phases the sky near 
the horizon sometimes assumes. Ten days in England, 
had extinguished the capacity of being surprised at any 
thing novel. Here were the high pointed roofs of which 
there remain a few humble representations in Broadway, 
Albany. Soldiery in uniform at every step; the hotels! 
what a chasm between them and those we had just left. 
Whole congregations of people goingfrom morning ser¬ 
vice in church, to. pass the day in fishing and their vari¬ 
ous avocations; females engaged in almost every kind 
of manual labor, with spades and hoes and baskets, as 
well as the less severe kinds of service; all these seemed 
quite as a matter of course, and it is difficult to recall the 
impressions produced by them at first sight. 
The rail-road arrangements for the safety of baggage, 
were good; a ticket was pasted on the trunk, and a du¬ 
plicate given to the owner of the baggage; and as with 
the “ check” plan with us, no farther care was required. 
The cars do not compare with those recently introduced 
in America, between Boston and Albany, and between 
New-York and Philadelphia. At every crossing place 
of a highway, we found a man in uniform and in wood¬ 
en shoes, behind whom a cross-bar shut up the road. 
Long rows of low trees seemed to divide the fields and 
farms from each other. Windmills for grinding corn, 
and for pumping surplus water beyond the dykes, were 
constantly in view. I counted sixteen at one time in the 
range of vision from one side of the car. Here and 
there, a great pile of bricks in the form of a mansion, 
from which avenues, through rows of trees, lead in vari¬ 
ous directions, seemed the residence of a Belgian noble¬ 
man. The cultivation with rude plows and spades, ap¬ 
peared to be pretty thorough, though I could tell little 
about it, from the rapidity of our movement, and particu¬ 
larly from the lateness of the season, (Nov.) 
In approaching Brussels, at the conclusion of a four 
hour’s ride, I saw the first considerable hill on the con¬ 
tinent. Ghent, which we passed somewhere about half 
j vvay from Ostende, is upon a knoll, elevated a few feet 
above the surrounding plain. Brussels rewarded very 
