smooth, firm, dry road is one of the greatest conveniences and enjoyments; while a rough, soft, muddy road is one of the greatest draw backs and annoyances of country life. Bad roads form the greatest obstacles to progress and per manent improvements in all the neighborhoods that :ire blasted with their presence; they have a demoralizing effect upon the inhabitants, and are a sure sign either of poverty or mismanage ment, or both. Water is the worst enemy to good roads. It is, therefore, a leading principle in road making so to construct them that they may he kept dry. In absence of a thnely recog nition of this principle, many costly roads have proved to be failures; but where it has had prominent recognition and its value has been properly appreciated, good roads have been made at a trifling expense. After locating the road and marking out its course, the sides should be brought to the proper grade and finished by a layer of sod as a guide to further operations. In crossing a sloping surface it is not necessary to have both sides perfectly level, but the nearer this can be secured, with due regard to getting rid of surface water, the better it will admit of a neat finish and the more easily will it be kept in repair. The road bed is then formed by exca vating and removing the soil to a depth of six inches at the sides, curving slightly higher in the center, and made perfectly smooth by roll ing, producing a uniform surface upon which the material of the road is to be placed. The best stone for road naetal is tough granite. Hard brittle stone is more readily reduced by pressure, but in a well kept road this difference is not im portant. It is, however, all important that the stones should be broken small. The largest should easily pass through a two-inch ring, and if one-half of them are small enough to pass throu0i a ring of only one inch in diameter, the road will ultimately become all the more com pact. The road hed should be filled with this broken stone to a level with the sides, increasing in depth toward the center at the rate of one inch to the yard. Thus, a road sixteen feet in width would have a depth of about, nine inches in the center. The utmost care should be ap plied to regulating the surface, and the smaller stones should be used on top, in order to secure an even, compact, carefully moulded grade, which should be. compressed- by repeatedly pass ing a heavy roller over it, wedging every stone, and making a surface almost as smooth and solid as a pavement. A thin layer, not more than one inch in thickness, of fine clayey gravel should then be evenly distributed over the stones, and the roller again applied until the surface be comes homogeneous, firm, and close. The sur face of the road will thus be higher than the sod ded edgings; water will therefore pass readily from it, and one of the main points of keeping a good road will be secured. This will form a first class road for ordinary carriage drives, or for all purposes required in publia parks or pri vate grounds; and, if kept in good surface by frequent rolling, so as to prevent the forming of ruts while it is settling; and, if a facing of gravel is applied when necessary, it will permanently fulfil all requirements of a good road. The
quality of gravel deserves notice. Wash gravel, consisting only of sand and rounded pebbles, should never be used. No amount of pressure will render it firm, and it is the most disagreea ble material to walk upon. The best gravel is that to be found in banks composed of pebbles -mixed with reddish clay; and the stones must be small. No detail in road making is of so much importance as this. If a wagon Wheel or the foot of a horse press on one extremity of a stone the other end of it. will probably be slightly raised. allowing small particles of sand to fall into the crevice, when the stone is loosened, and will roll on the surface; hence the necessity of using only very finely divided stones ou top, so that they will be smaller thau the pressing point, and not become disarranged from leverage or coinpound action. Where stone can not con veniently he obtained, the road bed may be filled with refuse matters of many kinds, such as coal clinkers from furnaces, and shells. Oyster shells are plentiful in many places near the sea board, and form an admirable road; but the per manency, as well as efficiency of these materials in a road bed, will depend altogether upon the care of surfacing with proper gravel. Where it is impracticable to procure, or deemed inexpedi ent to use, any of the foregoing materials, an earth road may be rendered very serviceable by proper attention to the leading principle—that is, to keep it dry. In this case, instead of ex cavating a road bed, slight excavations should be made at the sides and the material spread over the center; and that surface water may pass to the sides more rapidly and thoroughly, a greater convexity may be given to the curve. In some sections of the country good roads are kept up in this manner, but they are carefully re paired whenever necessary, and all ruts and tracks are filled up as soon as tbey are formed. The same general principles apply to the forma tion of walks and foot paths. The depth of ma terial, however, need not exceed a few inches. It is certain that much unnecessary expense is frequently laid out upon mere foot walks. A porous, gravelly, or sandy soil is in itself a good walk if properly shaped. Such walks admit of greater convexity than carriage roads, which is equivalent to a saving of material. Walks should be well filled up. There is no more disagreeable object, or one that conveys so meager an expres sion, as deep, raw edgings to a walk, looking as if they had been trimmed with a plow. Walks in this condition may be serviceable as water courses, but they are not comfortable foot paths. (See also Roads, and Landscape Gardening.)