154 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
sociations among us ; and we honestly avow it as our belief, that the i 
motives have been generally those of speculation, with little or no 1 
regard or tendency to the public good; and that the means resorted 
to, to obtain charters, have generally been disingenuous, often dis¬ 
honest, and sometimes infamous. We admit that the public inter- ; 
ests have been greatly promoted by charters for objects of magni-1 
tude, requiring great capital. But because some are beneficial, it 
does not follow that all are so. Because it requires a concentra-! 
tion of capita], and corporate privileges to dig a canal, or construct 
a rail-road, neither of which come in competition with individual 
enterprize, it does not follow, that the like capital and privileges are 
required to plant the mulberry, or cultivate the beet, which every 
farmer and gardener can do without corporate powers. 
The subject addresses itself to the good sense, and dispassionate 
consideration of every friend to good order and wholesome laws.— 
The evil can only be arrested by the mandate of the public will. 
ROAD MAKING. 
No branch of public improvement is of more importance to the 
farmer, nor indeed to the community at large, than the bettering of, 
our common roads, particularly those which constitute the main' 
avenues to market. These are the great arteries which transmit! 
life, and vigor, and health, to every part of the business comrnuni-1 
ty. Our turnpikes have proved a failure, from a mistaken parsimo-; 
ny in their construction, and their needless multiplication. Rail¬ 
roads will do upon the great thoroughfares of commerce and travel; 
but for the transaction of internal commerce between the great 
towns and the country, good public roads should have precedence 
over all others: Because they dispense their benefits to all alike, 
and exempt us from the mortifying impositions of chartered wealth, 
and the officious impertinence of a host of subordinate officers. It 
is upon these public roads that the immense products of our farms 
are transported, and that we mostly receive in return the foreign com-1 
modities which we consume. If it cost the farmer twelve and a' 
half cents per bushel to transport his grain to navigable waters, or 
to market, upon a bad road, the actual expense would be diminished 1 
more than three-fourths if he could quadruple his load upon a good 
road ; for not only would there be a saving in animal power, and other 
expenses, to this extent, but there would be a further saving in the 
wear and tear of carriages, and in delays and accidents incident to 
bad roads. Roads, like the objects of most other expenditure, are 
cheapest when well made. 
The business of road making has hitherto attracted very little of 
the public attention. Although the construction of roads is as 
much an art as common trades, and as much of a science as other 
branches of civil engineering, where good roads are the order of the 
day ; yet with us the superintendence of their construction and re¬ 
pair is entrusted to all professions—to farmers, mechanics, lawyers, 
&c. who seldom understand much of the art, and know nothing of; 
the science—and who are too often guided by self-interest, or ca¬ 
price, and often rather mar than mend, the work of their predeces¬ 
sors. 
We have derived many of our improvements from Great Britain ; 
and from no country can we draw more useful teachings, in regard 
to road making, than from her. For although, fifty years ago, her 
roads were probably not so good as ours now are, wonderful im¬ 
provements have been made in them during the intervening half 
century. Her turnpikes, which cover, like a net-work, the surface 
of her island, are constructed upon the true McAdam plan, of pre¬ 
serving the earthy bed of the road always dry, by an efficient metal 
or stone covering, and sufficient side drains. Their parish roads are 
now undergoing a similar improvement. These works, which ab¬ 
sorb annually an appropriation of a million and a half pounds ster¬ 
ling, or more than six and a half million of dollars, give employ¬ 
ment to the pauper population, and thus remunerate the public, in a 
measure, for this heavy national burthen. To make our readers 
acquainted with some of the leading principles which govern, in the 
business of road-making, in Great Britain, we will state them, in a 
summary manner, as we find them laid down in the most recent 
British publications upon this subject, principally from the Farmers’ 
Series of the Library of Useful Knowledge; premising, however, 
that although they apply mainly to metal covered roads, they are 
more or less applicable to the construction of all roads, where utili¬ 
ty, durability and ultimate economy, are to be studied. 
Foundation. —Eminent men differ upon this point; the one party 
contending that a pitched foundation is nescessary to make a sub¬ 
stantial and good road ; the other, that no pitching is essential.— 
Pitching, as here used, is a foundation formed of large stones.— 
The weight of opinion is against their use. The best foundation, 
the use of large stones being dispensed with, is a substratum kept 
perfectly dry by proper and effectual drainage. If one substance in 
road-making be harder than another, the harder substance should 
be upon the surface, and not at the foundation. To lay the softer 
upon the harder, must have the effect of sacrificing the inferior ma¬ 
terial. 
Drainage. —All exertion to construct or repair roads is considered 
unavailing until the bed of the road is freed from water, and secur¬ 
ed against its return. Of what service can metal (stone) be when 
the road is immersed in water. Can it consolidate 1 Can it form a 
compact and hard substance, when water is amongst it, consuming 
as it were its very vitals 1 To correct and prevent a recurrence of 
the evil, substantial side ditches should be opened, so as to give a 
slope of one inch in 24, between the crowns of the road and bot¬ 
toms. If open drains cannot be made on both sides, owing to the 
declivity of the surface, under drains should be constructed,with 
outlets, through the bed of the road to the lower side. And if 
springs exist in the scite of the road, their water must be concentrated, 
and conducted off by under drains. When a particular piece of 
road is observed to be continually heavy, and in a bad state, it is 
either caused by spring water, or is situated in a flat, from which 
the water cannot escape. These suggestions should not be lost to 
us. A principal defect in our roads, is the want of efficient drain¬ 
age. Wherever water is permitted to remain, either upon the sur¬ 
face or substiatum, in wet seasons there will be a slough, and the 
bed of the road will be entirely broken up. 
The substance or thickness of materials. —Without a sufficient 
depth of consolidated materials, there will not be a resistance equal 
to the weight which a highway is subject to. There must be 
weight to resist weight. If the weight of metal forming the 
substance be of an imperfect quality, more will be required than 
when sound and clean. In proportion to the quantity of deleterious 
matter contained in the body (as earth, small gravel, soft stone, &c.) 
must the thickness be increased. Any matter that is not of a sound 
nature has no power in road-making, and, therefore, the hard ma¬ 
terials alone contained in the roads substance can be calculated up¬ 
on 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 busaltic rocks are therefore preferred; then whinstone, dark 
colored granite and lime-stones. 
Preparation and size of materials. —The stone to be employed is 
first freed from dirt, and then broken so small 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 be¬ 
comes settled or incorporated with the road. The stones will not 
allow each another to lie quiet, but are continually elbowing one ano¬ 
ther, and driving their neighbors to the left and right, above and be¬ 
low. 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 time. A cubic yard nicely prepared and broken, to a rod su¬ 
perficial, will be quite enough for a coat, and will be found to last as 
long as double the quantity put on unprepared 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 imbedded, apply 
another, until the desired power is obtained. 
“ To say nothing of the saving in a course of years, by the dura¬ 
bility 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 
