per mile, showing a saving on this portion of road of 63 per cent. each year. This amount is exclusive of interest on the initial cost of remaking the road, as the saving effected after four years more than compensated for this charge. (b) The annual expenditure on this road, taken as in the preceding case over a similar period, namely, ten years previous to coating and rolling, was on an average £74, 18s. 6d. per mile. The quantity of metalling applied each year was 208 cubic yards or 231 tons per mile, the price of which, laid down in depôts at the road-side, was 4s. 11d. per cubic yard. The respective figures for maintenance per mile per annum were as follows: Labour, etc., Total, £24 0 0 £74 18 6 These two items, therefore, bore a proportion to the combined cost of 68 per cent. for road metal, and 32 per cent, for manual labour. The width of the roadway varies from 15 to 18 feet, while 16 feet may be taken as representing the average width, so that with the quantity of metalling stated, fully 64 per cent. of road surface was coated each year. This road was repaired and steam-rolled five years ago; the actual quantity of metalling applied was 826 tons per mile, which is an average thickness of 3 inches for a width of 15 feet. It will thus be seen that, for continuous coating and rolling operations, the quantity of metalling applied was equal to nearly 33 times the annual supply found sufficient to keep the surface of the road in good repair. The quality of the material forming the coating to be steam-rolled was not equal to that which was formerly applied for patching. The quarry from which the material was usually procured for repairing this road is situated six miles distant, and the transport could only be done by team-work. It was, therefore, decided to obtain the metalling from some other source as a matter of economy in first cost, but, as will be shown later, this was an unfortunate arrangement, having regard to the cost and the ultimate wearing capacity of the macadam used. The material used was brought ten miles by rail and broken by the machine at a railway depôt within 1 miles of the road to be remade. The cost of coating and rolling this road, including freight and all other charges, was £213, 18s. per mile, or nearly three times as much as the previous annual expenditure. Owing, however, to the metalling not being of so durable a nature as that formerly employed for repairs by patching, the surface of the road became irregular or cupped three years after being repaired. It was considered necessary to scarify and to apply a coat of metalling after the material used in the first repairs had served for four and a half years. This re-facing cost £91, 3s. 7d., while the quantity of macadam applied was 266 tons per mile. The inclusive cost for the two operations was therefore £305, 18. 7d. per mile of road repaired. At the present time the surface of the road is becoming so much cupped that it will be necessary to thoroughly repair it in the course of a year or two, by scarifying and screening the old material, applying a fresh coat of metalling of a more durable nature, and rolling so as to bring about a more satisfactory state of matters. The quantity of road metal, therefore, which has been applied for consolidation, being 1036 tons per mile, and assuming the time mentioned as that when further repairs will probably have to be carried out, the road will have had a life of only six years. It has consequently cost besides interest £50, 16s. 11d. per mile per annum for metalling and rolling, to which sum has to be added £17, 5s., being the actual amount expended for surface labour, or a total of £68, 18. 11d. per mile per annum. This amount, even under the adverse circumstances mentioned, shows a saving for this method of executing repairs of 9 per cent. over the patching system of maintaining roads. Had a more suitable material been employed in the first instance, the probability is that the surface of the road would have withstood the wear of the wheel traffic for as long a time as the combined operations have lasted. It would also, it is confidently assumed, have been the means of greatly reducing the ultimate total amount of expenditure incurred. () In the third case referred to, the wheel traffic was of a light description and principally confined to the touring months in summer, the annual consumption of metalling, which was of a good quality, being on an average for a similar period as in the preceding cases 35 cubic yards or 39 tons per mile per annum, while the actual expenditure on maintenance for a like distance and time was £13, 15s. 6d. The proportion of the material and labour to the combined cost was 51 per cent. for the former, and 49 per cent. for the latter, the price of the macadam being 48. per cubic yard deposited in depôts at the road-side. This line of road, over ten miles long, was coated with metalling and rolled ten years ago, and re-surfaced three years since, so that the first coating, a light one, and rolling had a life of seven years. The quantity of material then applied for rolling was 350 tons per mile, or equal to niue times the average annual supply previously used for repairs. The actual cost of supplying the metalling from three different quarries which were situated within easy distance of the main road, and rolling, was £62 per mile. The metalling and rolling was thus equal to £8, 17s. 2d. per mile per annum, and adding the expenditure actually incurred for manual. labour in dressing borders, scraping, etc., amounting to £3, 15s., made a total of £12, 12s. 2d. per mile per annum. This shows an apparent saving of 8 per cent. on the previous annual expenditure, but as an allowance must be made in this case for interest on the initial cost of rolling, the actual saving is only 4 per cent. The reduction of expenditure, although small, combined with the indirect saving to horses and vehicles by reason of the hard and smooth surface which the road presents all the year round, is a distinct advantage. It is also a sufficient plea for carrying out rolling operations even when the annual consumption of materials for repairs, by the old or patching system, only amounts to 35 cubic yards per mile of road. 393. Conclusions arrived at from the preceding Comparisons.-From the particulars stated in the preceding paragraphs, referring to the cost of repairs on existing roads under different conditions, it is evident that maintaining them on the principles advocated, namely, obtaining the materials and performing the work by the use of modern mechanical appliances, spreading the metalling in continuous coatings and steam-rolling, provides a road not only uniform and smooth, but one which is equally good and serviceable at all times. The comparative absence of loose stones, dust in dry weather, and mud after a fall of rain, greatly reduces the tractive efforts required by horses hauling loads, and these conditions are of considerable moment to all who have occasion to use the highways. The economy of the methods of working enumerated in the preceding chapters (the results of which have been pointed out in detail) are, the author considers, conclusive, even on roads where the necessary annual outlay or the quantity of metalling used on the patching system is relatively small. When these methods of repairing roads are more fully appreciated, the system of laying isolated patches of metal and compelling the traffic to consolidate them, a system which is so well known, so largely practised at the present time, and so expensive and unsatisfactory in its results, will be discarded entirely for the more modern methods of consolidating the material by the aid of steam rollers only. Fig. 121 illustrates Aveling & Porter's most recent design of their 15-ton compound road-roller. 394. The difference in first cost, compared with the ultimate economy and success of the work, by using a suitable class of material, compared with that of employing an inferior class of stones obtained locally, warrants most careful consideration. Experience has proved that the cheapest material is not always to be recommended, as quality, although involving greater cost by reason of the longer haulage, is of more importance; and the ultimate durability and economy of maintenance may be secured by employing only the best material which can be procured. 395. Surfacing Roads.-The manual labour in connection with the maintenance of the surface of a road consists of scraping the surface during wet weather, siding, cleaning side and outlet channels, repairing footpaths, etc., the labour connected with which is augmented when the material for T |