New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-07-27

yield il the smallest degree the road

yield il the smalles, degree the road is
virtually done for.
When tar obtained from the cistiilatlon
| Of WOOD or from the refuse Of gas-making
is used instead of the mineral pitch, as IS
nearly always the case in presen: times, the
road must prove failure. whether the bed
is well laid .or not. If well made. asphalt
roads are expensive and often unreliable
in hot climates; if badly made, as they are
in ninety-nine cases out of hundred. they
are nuisance.
Granite paving is sunques:ionably the mos:
durable of all systems. and the dearest.
Granite gives good foothold. but not bet
ter than road macadamized with gravel.
The draught is very severe over granite; 1t
is light over we'll laid gravel road. Gran
ite costs two-thirds more than gravel, and
it is terribly noisy. but it is dustless, and so
is gravel. Granite paving is best for use
when the blocks ars ten to eleven inches
long, and four wide, with the edges slightly
beveied. The interstices should be filled
with gravel, not with sand. which is espe-
cialy to be avoided. The embodiment should
be well established with stringers
along the gutter sides. This system of street
making has been found more efficacious in
London, the severe test for durable pave
ments, than a broad, fiat surface. A broad
surface OF large two feet blocks does not
offer secure footing for horses. This plan,
however, has been adopted here because
<bo oviriOn fha< sOi1 iS
sof. broad surfaced block would not
easily sink into the ground. This is a
serious error; square block pavement is self
relying and not assisted by its neighbor,
whereas with the granite pavement have
alluded to, say eleven inches by four, and
slightly beveled, you have only to pack
them slightly elanting, one side leaning on
it's neighbor at slight angle, thereby show
ing regular but slightly upturned edge.
and the pressure is taken off from the base,
so that when block receives a shock all
receive a share of it, and the pressure is
not directed entirely on one stone with a
downward bearing.
BRICK PAVING.
In British Guiana where the soil of eli
mate closely approximate to those of New
Orleans, description Of pavement pre-
walls, which only mention for its quaint
ness, not recommending it for adoption,
though the conditions may be somewhat
similar. Our positions differ, however. in
this respect. Demerara and neighboring G
countries are absolutely destitute of any
;Ioh Co In Nor nr.
leans we have almost at our doors the
finest and cheapest kind of paving material.
though we have hitherto sent North and
East for the costliest and toughest. British
Guiana lies on the extreme northeast coast
Of South America. Demerara and Esse.
quibo are two colonies, each one on the
confluence Of rivers of the same name, and
one can pass from one to the other by in
terror roads. Guiana, like lower Louisiana
lies low, and possesses an alluvial soil.
On the banks of the Demerara river the
sugar cane grows luxuriantly. The plant
ers are skilled men, and most Of them know
sufficient of chemistry to understand what
is de ticient in the soil of their locality. which
they at once proceed to add. They irrigate
and they do thousand and one things to
| improve cane culture and sugar and rum
! manufact ure, but in the midst OF all this
they have misery. They are without ma
terial to make roads-but never yielding,
they have taken the best thing they can
| fnd-and having abundance OF clay they
make their roads of it.
I happened to be at Demerara once, in
their road making season, and saw the pro-
cess. 1t is simple, yet novel. The road is
leveled and graded, then dried brambles
are carefully strewn and arranged over the
road, and we'll trodden down. Over them
is placed moistened clay (mixed with
straw, to the consistency Of soft putty and
to the thickness of twelve to fourteen
inches. Being moist, this clay is easily
shaped. giving the road an oval form or
crown. This done, the surface is thickly
strewn with dried brambles. then fired. and
the burning watched to keep up regular
heat. When the clay is baked and the BRAN
bles burned up the road is now formed, hav'
ing hard brick-like surface. Thus We
have model road and very pleasing to the
eve, but it soon yields to the pressure of
traffic: it pulverizes. and on windy days
the air is filled with thick, dense cloud OF
red dust-fne and penetrating. In wet
weather. after having had a good pounding
from use, the whole road is covered with
soft paste. sticky and paint like. Wet or
dry, the road becomes after short time a
nuisance; but. what is to be done 7! A hall
loaf is better than no bread, and every
year these roads are renewed. No one
grumbles, because it is the best they can
do, and they do it. This system of road.
making is, however, not recommendable,
and certainly will not suit us here. for it is
neither durable nor endurable. Burned clay
is used in England as bottoms to garden
walks, and sometimes as bottoms for flag
paving. 1t has the property of drainage,
and as the moisture is thus coaxed down
ward the face of the flags is never sweaty,
sHELLRoADs.
Suppose were to renew sheilroads.
what could say that would be new! She'll
road. have been the old love here. and it is
we'll, perhaps, mot to be Oft with the old
love before we are on with the new. One
yard of shellroad, properly lad. evep with
all the very apparen. defects of the system.
is worth ten yards of the wooden abortion
with which St. Charles avenue is now en-
numbered. Shells are nothing more than a
pure oxide Of calcium-lime. in fact. From
ordinary traffic and exposure to light and
air the material soon pulverizes and wears
Hoo +1o ,p