bolted to under side of pole. The dotted lines show position of grader Fig. 3.-Plan of plate b, inch thick. WILKINSON'S IMPROVED RUT SCRAPER AND GRADING MACHINE. break the lading, and destroy the road. The wheel of a loaded vehicle, alling from a stone over which it has rolled, even if it is not more than !wo inches in height, will injure a road surface more than the natural olling wear on a smooth surface in running a mile. The same may be said of the effect of loose stones on a macadamized road, only that the damage to the latter is more serious than to the earth-road surfaces, which will in some degree repair themselves; but the displaced, macadamizing material is strewed upon the surface of the road, greatly increasing the evil. Next in importance to drainage is the removal of loose stones from the surface of the road, and the best and cheapest mode in thus clearing earth and gravel roads is to run the rut scraper or grader over the road, commencing at each margin with the scraper, so set that the surplus earth, stones, &c., will be continally deposited toward the center of the road. Having passed the scraper over the entire surface, by passing up one side and down the other, all the small stones to be removed will be deposited in a narrow row on the middle of the roadbed, from which they may be rapidly gathered by the use of the malleable cast-iron coal-scoop, which being latticed allows the earth and gravel to fall through. Loose stones may thus be removed from the surface of earth and gravel roads at perhaps one-tenth the cost of handpicking, and all ruts filled at the same time. The loose stones on macadamized roads should be frequently picked off, and the side tracks kept in order by the use of the grader, as above described. Great advantage and economy result from passing the rut scraper over earth and gravel roads as soon after every rain-fall as the soil becomes dry enough to flow before the scraper, and readily fall into the ruts and depressions in the road surface. Where water is allowed to stand until evaporated from the ruts, large and frequently dangerous mud-holes are the consequence; and as they are generally repaired by casting in stones, small and large, the road is made worse, instead of better. Mud-holes in roads are striking examples of a verification of the adage that "prevention is better than cure;" and prevention can be effected in the most simple and economical manner, by the use of the rut scraper. If taken in time, it is rarely necessary to haul soil for repairs, that removed by the scraper from the margins of the ruts generally being all that is requisite to raise the depressions to the proper grade. The objectionable course of conveying surface water across roads on the surface, instead of by the use of a proper culvert, is common in all parts of the country, even on macadamized roads charging heavy tolls. The damage annually done to teams in such cases is more than the cost of a culvert. These water crossings are often, in winter, a sheet of ice ten to twenty feet in length and as wide as the road, in crossing which teams are often seriously injured by slipping. WATER FOR TEAMS. It is a matter of so great importance that a full supply of water by the roadside be provided for teams, at intervals of at least an average of five miles, that the subject should no longer be neglected, but a provision for securing a supply should be made in the county road laws. Except in very flat dry countries, it is generally practicable at trifling cost to arrange water troughs at proper intervals, so that water will flow in and out perpetually. The supply-pipe should always be inserted into the bottom of the trough, and not rise much above the surface of the water when the trough is full; for, if it does, the water is apt to be blown about and to freeze, so as to make the approach to the trough danger ous. If the water is received at the bottom of the trough, and the overflow is taken from near the supply, in a pipe to a culvert, there will be no ice about the trough. The supply-pipe should rise about half an inch above the level of the water in the trough, so as to form a drinking fountain for teamsters and travelers. In the heat of summer, teams will instinctively hurry their pace as they approach these grateful, thirstslaking stations, and their comfort will be promoted to a degree that will well compensate for the outlay. The temperature of water standing in a trough exposed to the sun is more wholesome for working teams than that from cold wells. WATER BARS. The purpose of the bar is to cast the surface water from the road to the side or sides before it has accumulated in such amount as to cut the ruts into gullies. When the surface of the road has a slope to both sides, the bars should be placed opposite each other in the form of an obtuse V. The bottom of the V should be up the grade. There should be no gutter excavated in the road surface on the upper side of the bars, but the bar should be raised slightly above the road surface. No stones or timbers should be used in the bars; good gravel, where obtainable, is the best material. If the bars are placed as ncar each other as they should be on the heavy grades, the highest portion of the bars, that is, at the margins of the road, need not be more than three inches above the level of the surface of the road. On newly constructed roads, whether of broken stone, earth, or gravel, the water bars need frequent and particular attention until they become firm; in fact there is no portion of the road that will give a better return for the required outlay of of labor than the water bars. SHELL ROADS. A pleasant and durable road for ordinary light country travel may be made on a properly drained foundation, by applying shells to the depth of about eight inches, with a lateral surface grade of a quarter of an inch to the foot, but not sufficiently durable to be profitable for heavy traffic. A few years since, one of the main macadamized turnpikes leading out of Baltimore was repaired over a section of about half a mile in length, by dressing the stoned road with shells, applied about six inches in thickness. The solid bed of stones underneath and the heavy traffic on the surface soon ground the shells to powder, and when wet it became a bed of thin lime mortar, two to four inches in depth, which was so objectionable that the company were obliged to scrape up and haul off the whole mass in less than two years after the shells were applied. The circumstances described were particulary unfavorable for shells, as a test of their durability. The wear upon an ordinary carriage road in private grounds is not usually sufficient to reduce the shells to a good road in many years; hence they are not adapted for that use. A shell surface is inclined to rut, and work to the margins, and the shells are very difficult to move so as to repair the road by any hand process; while by the use of the grader, they may be readily and rapidly leveled in the construction of a new road, or regraded when displaced by wear. An active man with a pair of horses, with this implement, will repair two or three miles of shell road in a day, which would require the labor of at least seventy-five men to perform in the same time. ROAD GUTTERS. So much depends on the proper condition of the side gutters for the thorough maintenance and protection of the road, that the writer has been induced to give this branch of the subject special attention, and to test a variety of plans, in the hope of arriving at valuable and permanent improvement. Having realized his fullest hopes in one direction, a detailed description of the aim and its results may be given. Finding that the gutters, from the perpetual moisture maintained in them, were inclined to clog with rank, aquatic grasses, he sought to devise a plan to prevent the difficulty. The course pursued was to pave the gutters with boulders, set in about eight inches of washed gravel, and when they were all rammed in place, the gravel was swept from the interstices between the stones, to the depth of one inch, and its place supplied with heated, clean sand, which was saturated as it was applied, with a hot mixture of coal-tar and coal-tar pitch, two parts of the former and one of the latter, filling the interstices level with the surface of the pavement, producing a smooth uniform surface. The first experiment was made about twelve years ago, and has proved a perfect success, the effect being to prevent the growth of all vegetation, while the surface being smooth prevents any clogging with leaves, dead wood, and the like. Another valuable result attained was that the pavement, being made water-proof, is hardly affected at all by frost, keeping its place much better than when the stones are set in gravel alone, in the ordinary manner. This concrete dressing is not adapted to use in gutters where vehicles are allowed to run over it, particularly in cold weather; but it is admirably adapted to use in side gutters for country roads, and is greatly superior to any other gutter for carriage roads and walks in private grounds. The cost is about two cents per superficial foot more than the ordinary stone-paved gutter. COUNTRY ROAD ENGINEERING. Road engineering as a profession has not been sufficiently in demand in this country hitherto, to enlist the attention of those possessing experience, skill, and a thorough, scientific knowledge of the subject. The engineering of new roads and the alteration of old ones have generally been done by a land surveyor, or some student in railroad engineering, each deficient in a knowledge of the important work he attempts to execute; hence the defective character of most of these roads thoroughout the country. Not until the professional engineer shall receive greater encouragement to make common road engineering, in all its details, more a specialty, will it be more skillfully executed, and this encouragement will not be afforded until the masses are made more familiar with the importance of the subject. There is one important principle in road engineering that should always control the grade of a road as far as practicable, and yet it is observed and acted upon only as the exception instead of the rule. It is that when a road is to connect two points, whether terminal or intermediate, and one is higher than the other, the inclination of the road should, if practicable, continually tend upward in one direction, and the reverse in the opposite. Instead of this we have examples all over the country where there is a descent, a fall in the grade, made up of a number of smaller or larger hills, from the low to the high point, that is really greater than the actual elevation of the high above the low point. A trifling divergence in the direction of the road, and frequently with but a slight increase in its length, if any, will almost always remedy this great defect; so that a team, in traversing the road from the low to the high point, shall have but little, if anything, more than the real dif ference in the altitude of the two points to overcome. This error, if corrected in all existing cases in this country, would be of incalculable advantage to the community. WIDTH BETWEEN FENCES. It is important that the width of a road between fences should be ample to provide the material required in construction and repair, without endangering the fences by undermining the banks, and also to leave a grade that will be self-sustaining. Greater width is necessary in snowy districts than in those not subject to blockade from this cause. In the northern portions of this country there are districts where the cost of keeping roads open in winter exceeds that of repairs in summer. Increasing the width between the fences and keeping the gutters suitable for the use of sleighs have proved to be the most efficient remedy. The width required by law varies in the different States from two to four rods. In the opinion of the writer the latter width is not too great to be economical for highways generally. Walls, close fences, or close belts of trees, on road margins, are also objectionable, as they tend to blockade them with snow, and prevent the surface from drying. SHADE FOR ROADS. On all earth roads shade is objectionable in its effects on the surface, yet it is admissible to provide a good shade with deciduous trees on the summits, where the fullest benefit of the fanning breeze may be enjoyed, and shade will be least injurious. The effect of shade on stoned roads is less injurious than on those of earth. Abrupt banks or dense thickets on the south side of a road-bed, so high and near as to exclude the sun from it in winter, are very objectionable and dangerous, as such portions of the road are generally icy, when the remainder is free. EXISTING ROAD LAWS. There is a great similarity in the general road laws of the different States pertaining to the maintenance of county roads, the tax being generally a poll-tax on the male inhabitants between certain ages, though in some there is a trifling bevy in money. The levy for the cost of new roads and bridges is usually in money, on all the taxable property in the rural districts. The system of labor-tax and of selecting road supervisors alternately throughout the districts, to direct the outlay of such tax, regardless of qualification or fitness for the work, notwithstanding it has so long and generally prevailed, is everywhere acknowl edged to be very defective and unprofitable in its results. PROPOSED SYSTEM. Al money required to construct and maintain the roads and bridges in each county should be raised by levying a tax in money. A compe tent county road engineer should be permanently employed, who should have the entire direction of all construction and repairs of roads and bridges in his district, with the power to draw on the treasury for the necessary means to meet all reasonable requirements in defraying the |