rant
person indeed who would claim that the automobile does a tithe of the
road damage that is done by horse-drawn traffic.

At a high rate of speed, however, the automobile does raise a fine
sandy dust, and exposes the macadam. A French authority states that
up to twenty to twenty-five kilometres an hour the automobile does
little or no harm to the roads, but when they increase to over fifty
kilometres an hour they do damage the surface somewhat. Just what the
ultimate outcome of it will be remains to be seen, but France is
unlikely to do anything which will work against the interests of the
automobilist.

In consequence of this newer and faster mode of travelling, it is
being found that on some parts of the roads the convexity of the
surface is too great, and especially at curves, where fast motors
frequently skid on the rounded surface. To obviate this a piece of
road near the Croix d'Augas in the Orleannais has had the outer side
of the curve raised eight centimetres above the centre of the road,
in somewhat the same manner as on the curve of a railway. Since this
innovation has proved highly successful and pleasing to the devotees
of the new form of travel, it is likely to be further adopted.

In the early period of the construction of French roads the earth
formation was made horizontal, but Tresaguet, a French engineer,
introduced the rounded form, or camber, and this is the method now
almost generally adopted, both in France and England. Only some
14,000 kilometres of the national routes have a hand-set foundation,
the others being what are termed broken-stone roads--the stone used
is broken in pieces and laid on promiscuously, after the system
introduced by Macadam. Some of the second and third class, roads are
constructed of gravel, and others, of earth.

From the official report of 1893 it appears that the cost of
maintenance of roads in France was as follows:

COST OF LABOUR AND MATERIALS
Annual Total Annual Cost
Cost per Kilometre
(AV.)
Routes Nationales 22,570,300 fcs. 775 fcs.
Routes Departmentales 14,555,850 600
Chemins Communication 82,474,450 423
Chemins Vicinaux 44,211,125 200

The above is for materials and labour on the roadways only, and
something between 33 1/3 per cent, and 50 per cent. is added for the
maintenance of watercourses a