themselves among the happy and the successful. The advice which the
wise old Horace made a sage seaman give two thousand years ago is
good for road-makers of to-day,--

"Licinius, trust a seaman's lore:
Steer not too boldly to the deep;
Nor dreading storms by treacherous shore
Too closely creep."

It ought therefore to be an accepted maxim in road-making that the
road-bed should be so constructed as to induce vehicles to travel it
equally in every part.

For our climate and soil, no doubt, a macadamized road is the
cheapest and best for general travel. This is made by covering the
bottom of the road-bed with stones broken into angular pieces to a
depth of from four to twelve inches. The bottom of the road-bed
should be solid earth, and crowned sufficiently to carry off all
water that may reach it. The depth of the stone coating may properly
vary from four to twelve inches, as required by the nature of the
soil, the climate, and the travel on it; and the size of the broken
stones may also be varied to meet the requirements of the road. If
there is to be heavy travel on the road, the stone coating should be
thicker than on a road over which only lightly loaded teams are
expected to pass; and in the former case the broken stones should be
larger than in the latter case. In any event, the top of the stone
coating should be composed of stones broken into small fragments. A
coating, from four to six inches in depth, of broken stones from one
to two inches in diameter is ordinarily sufficient to make a hard,
dry, and beautiful country-road, if kept up at all seasons of the
year. Flat or round stones should never be used, because they will
not unite and consolidate into a mass, as small angular stones will
do. When travel is first admitted upon the stone coating, the ruts
should be filled up as soon as formed; or what is better, a heavy
roller should be used until the stones have become well
consolidated.

Sometimes in wet or clayey soil it is well to put at the bottom of
the stone coating a layer of large stones, set on their broadest
edges and lengthwise across the road in the form of a pavement. This
is called a Telford road, and has advantages over the McAdam road in
a soil retentive of moisture, as the layer of large stones operates
as an under drain to the stone coating above it.

It is undoubtedly true that the McAdam or Telford road is the best
road for all practical purposes in this country,