iculture has now established a road-material
laboratory in the Division of Chemistry, where any person residing in
the United States may have road materials tested free by applying for
instructions to the Office of Public Road Inquiries. The laboratory is
equipped with the apparatus necessary for carrying on such work, and the
Department intends to carry on general investigations on roads. Part of
the general plan will be to make tests on actual roads for the purpose
of comparing the results with those obtained in the laboratory.

Besides testing road materials for the public, blank forms for recording
traffic will be supplied by the department to any one intending to
build a road. When these forms are filled and returned to the
laboratory, together with the samples of materials available for
building the road, the traffic of the road will be rated in its proper
group, as described above; each property of the materials will be tested
and similarly rated according to its degree, the climatic conditions
will be considered, and expert advice given as to the proper choice to
be made.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] By Logan Waller Page, expert in charge of Road Material Laboratory,
Division of Chemistry.

[8] This term is derived from the Swedish word _trappa_, meaning steps,
and was originally applied to the crystallized basalts of the coast of
Sweden, which much resemble steps in appearance. As now used by road
builders, it embraces a large variety of igneous rocks, chiefly those of
fine crystalline structure and of dark-blue, gray, and green colors.
They are generally diabases, diorites, trachytes, and basalts.--PAGE.

CHAPTER V

STONE ROADS IN NEW JERSEY[9]

As New Jersey contains a great variety of soils, there are many
conditions to be met with in road construction. The northern part of the
state is hilly, where we have clay, soft stone, hard stones, loose
stones, quicksand, and marshes. In the eastern part of the state,
particularly in the seashore sections, the roads are at their worst in
summer in consequence of loose, dry sand, which sometimes drifts like
snow. In west New Jersey, which comprises the southern end of the state,
there is much loose, soft sand, considerable clay, marshes, and low
lands not easily drained.

In addition to the condition of the soil, there is the economic
condition to be considered. In the vicinity of large towns or cities,
where there is heavy carting by reason of manufactories and