THE CULTIVATOR. 
133 
and, therefore, the hard materials alone contained in the roads can 
be calculated upon as possessing the quality to resist weights. 
Experience has taught, that there can be no real security against 
a road giving way, taking the year through, unless twelve inches 
at least of good consolidated materials form the body of a road; and 
this upon a foundation rendered sound and dry by effectual drainage. 
Sort of materials. —Not the hardest, but the toughest stones, are the 
best. The first will break, the latter bend. The trappean and basal¬ 
tic rocks are therefore preferred; then whinstone, dark coloured gra- j 
nite and lime-stones. 
Preparation and size of materials. —The stone to be employed is first! 
freed from dirt, and then broken so smo.ll as to pass through the inch ! 
meshes of a wire seive. Some allow the stones to retain the size of! 
two inches, but none larger. The tougher the nature of the material, 
the smaller the size should be, 
Quantity of materials to be laid on at a time. —When a thick coat is 
laid on, the destruction of the material is very great before it becomes 
settled or incorporated with the road. The stones will not allow each 
other to lie quiet, but are continually elbowing one another, and driv¬ 
ing their neighbors to the left and right, above and below. This wears 
off their angular points, produces mud and dirt, and reduces the stones 
to an angular form, and prevents their uniting and becoming firm. If 
there be substance enough already on the road, it will never be right 
to put on more than a stone’s thickness at a lime. A cubic yard nicely 
prepaied and broken, to a rod superficial, will be quite enough for a 
coat, and will be found to last as long as double the quantity put on un¬ 
prepared and in thick layers. There is no grinding to pieces when 
thus applied; the angles are preserved, and the materials are out of 
sight and incorporated in a very little time. Each stone becomes fixed 
directly, and keeps its place, thereby escaping the wear and fretting 
•which occur when they are applied in a thick stratum. On new roads, 
the covering should be applied in thin coats. As soon as one is im¬ 
bedded, apply another, until the desired power is obtained. 
•‘To say nothing of the saving in a course of years, by the durability 
of a road formed under the new system, and which has been found in 
some cases, even where the traffic is considerable, by the side of a 
large town, to last for seven years without an additional stone being 
applied; to say nothing of the saving to the public in wear and tear of 
horses, carts and tackle; to say nothing of the comfort of travelling a 
smooth road, and also to say nothing of employment found for the 
poor; yet a road can be maintained good and perfect for half the sum, 
under the new system, which under the old, is expended without im¬ 
provement.” 
Spreading. —Cause the load to be shot down a short distance from 
the place upon which you wish the materials to be finally spread; and 
direct the spreader to cast every shovel lull from him equally, all over 
the surface, and in such a manner as he would do if he were sowing 
wheat broadcast. The road will then be not thicker in one place than 
another, and a section: will be produced -perfect and true. 
The writer on the subject of roads, in the Farmers’ Series, suggests 
some alterations in the British road laws, which have a particular bear¬ 
ing upon our condition, and seem well worthy of our consideration. He 
suggests, 
1. That the business of road making and repairing should be entrust¬ 
ed to the authority of a county, and not of a parish ; because, first, the 
public interest will govern more, and private interest less; and second¬ 
ly, the limited extent of the funds of a parish will not admit of giving 
such a salary to a surveyor—an officer there deemed indispensable— as 
will secure the services of a person educated in the principles of road 
management, and otherwise qualified for the office of surveyor —an office 
whose duties are here performed by path-masters. 
2. That the means for maintaining roads be no longer obtained by 
statute labor, which is similar to our road assessments—bacause the 
law operates in this respect partially, and the time spent by the farmer 
in paying this tax, is worth more to him than it benefits the public. 
He recommends that the cartage be done by contract, by which he cal¬ 
culates a saving of 50 per cent, and that the manual labor be judiciously 
applied under the supervision of a competent engineer. 
3. That the surveyor, or manager, be appointed for a longer period 
than one year, that he may be enanled to carry out a systematic plan 
of improvement, and give efficacy to his skill and science. 
Scraping. —If it is desirable to keep a road dry at the foundation, it 
must be equally so at the surface. _ 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE. 
A letter from a correspondent at Paris, gives the following account 
of this distinguished institution: 
“This society publishes yearly one or two volumes of memoirs. 
The number of corresponding French members is 400: there are from 
two to four or five in each department.of France. The number cf as- 
socies ordinaire (common associates,) who regularly assemble every 
fortnight, is limited to forty; that of associes libres to ten; that of as- 
socies strangers (foreign members,) to twenty—to which latter you be¬ 
long The king is the protector of the society. The president and 
vice-president are chosen annually; the secretary is perpetual. The 
members of the government consult this society on every great ques¬ 
tion relating to agriculture, and previous to its discussion by the cham¬ 
ber of deputies. The members who attend the meetings, receive a 
card, which entitles them to a remuneration of five franks (= to 94 
cents,) for each sitting. Ml the expenses of the society are defrayed by 
the government. Prizes are adjudged annually. After their distribu¬ 
tion, the members dine together. 
“ Agriculture is now making great progress in France, by the influ¬ 
ence of the corresponding societies of the Royal and Central Agricul¬ 
tural Society, which assemble in the Hotel de Ville of this city.” 
Corn Stock Fodder .■—It is observed by a writer in the Vermont Far¬ 
mer, and correctly too, we think, that the stocks and shucks of an acre 
of good corn, well managed, will go as far in keeping neat cattle as the 
hay cut from the same acre of ground. What we mean by being well 
managed, is, that the crop be cut at the ground, and immediately stook- 
ed, as soon aS the grain is glazed—that the corn be picked off as 
soon as it is sufficiently dried, and the forage bound, and well stack¬ 
ed or housed,—and that when given out, it be cut and fed to the stock 
in mangers. If, when fed, it can be steamed, qr wet with a weak 
pickle, and sprinkled with a small matter of ship stuff or bran, all the 
better. The defects in managing this forage crop are, that either the 
corn-is topped, and the tops left in the field in stoolss, or the entire 
stocks are left to stand, till they are nearly spoilt by the weather,—that 
they are badly housed, and fed in the yard without cutting. The con¬ 
sequence is, that much of their nutritious matter is dissipated.—that 
much is often destroyed, and that of what remains eatable, the cattle 
are only able to consume the leaves, tops and shucks—the main stock 
being lost, for want of being cut, so that the cattle can masticate it. 
Our cows and oxen were kept last winter almost wholly upon cut com 
stalks, and they were in as good condition in spring as when fed en¬ 
tirely on hay. 
NEW HORTICULTURAL WORK. 
G. C. Thorburn has published, in pamphlet for, “Jin Outline of the 
First Principles of Horticulture, by John Lindley, F. R. S. &c. Pro¬ 
fessor of Botany in the University of London, and Assistant Secretary 
of the Horticultural Sqciety,”—price twenty-five cents—sould also by 
W. Thorburn, Albany. We know of no individual better qualified to 
explain the phenomena of vegetable life, and to separate that part of ve¬ 
getable physiology which relates to the science of cultivation, from what 
appertains to pure botany, or other subjects, than Professor Lindley. 
Connected as he has been for many years, with the Horticultural Gar¬ 
den of London, and filling with distinguished honor the professor’s 
chair of botany in one of the first universities in the world, his oppor¬ 
tunities of studying the science of horticulture have been great. “ My 
intention,” says he, “ has not been to Write a work on the philosophy 
of horticulture; but simply to point out, in the briefest manner, what 
the fundamental principles of that philosophy have been ascertained to 
be.” “In the first place,” he continues, “ a distinction must be drawn 
between the art and the science of horticulture; the former teaches the 
manner, the latter the reasons of cultivation ; and it is to the latter only 
that these propositions apply. Secondly, the plan of this sketch ex¬ 
cludes every thing that is merely speculative, or that is incapable of 
being reduced within certain fixed principles.” As agriculture and 
horticulture are sister arts, and are governed by the same general laws 
this little work will be alike serviceable to the farmer, the gardener* 
and the florist, to all of whom we heartily commend it. We think of 
publishing the entire treatise in the next volume of the Cultivator, but 
in the meantime we make an extract, to afford the reader a sample of 
the work. The figures introduced in parenthesis refer to the para¬ 
graphs in which the terms preceding the figures are explained. 
“ X. SAP. 
“260. The fluid matter which is absorbed, either from the earth or 
from the air, is called sap. 
“261. When it first enters a plant it consists of water, holding cer¬ 
tain principles, especially carbonic acid, in solution. 
“262. These principles chiefly consist of animal or vegetable matter 
in a state of decomposition, and are energetic in proportion to their so¬ 
lubility, or tendency to form carbonic acid, by combining with the oxy¬ 
gen of the air. ' J 
“263. Sap soon after acquires the nature of mucilage or sugar, and 
subsequntiy becomes still further altered by the admixture of such so¬ 
luble matter as it receives in passing in its route through the alburnum 
or newly formed woody tissue. (65.) 
“264 And when it reaches the vicinity of the leaves it is attracted 
into them, and there, having been exposed to light and air, is converted 
into the secretions peculiar to the species. 
“ 265. It finally, in its altered state, sinks down the bark, whence it 
is given off laterally, by the medullary rays, and is distributed through 
the system. a 
