The Pieces Of Scantling Thus Connected Are Simply Bedded
Firmly In The Ground, Which Is Levelled Up To Their Upper Edges.
Pine Planks, Three Inches Thick, Are Then Laid Across With Their
Ends Resting On The Scantling.
The planks are closely wedged
together like the flooring of a house, and secured here and there by
strong wooden pins, driven into auger-holes bored through the planks
into the scantling.
The common way is to lay the plank-flooring
at right angles with the scantling, but a much better way has
been adopted in the county of Hastings. The planks are here laid
diagonally, which of course requires that they should be cut several
feet longer. This ensures greater durability, as the shoes of the
horses cut up the planks much more when the grain of the wood
corresponds in direction with their sharp edges. When a double track
is required, three longitudinal courses of scantling are used, and
the ends of the planks meet on the centre one. Very few, if any,
iron nails are generally used.
The great advantage of a plank-road is the large load it enables the
horses to draw. Whilst on a common road a farmer can only carry
twenty-five bushels of wheat in his waggon, a plank-road will enable
him to carry forty or fifty bushels of the same grain with a pair of
horses. The principal disadvantage of the plank-roads is, that they
are found by experience to be injurious to horses, particularly when
they are driven quickly on them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 628 of 670
Words from 170371 to 170630
of 181664
