ng and autumn, and after heavy rains in summer, damp, and often
sloppy. Wherever the ground is of such a character as to prevent the
rapid sinking to a considerable depth of all excessive moisture, there
is sure to be a disagreeable condition of the footway whenever the lower
soil is locked with frost, and the surface is thawed. Even with the best
drainage, natural or artificial, this condition will exist for a short
time while frost is coming out of the ground; but with good drainage it
is of so temporary a character as hardly to justify any expensive
finishing of the surface, except perhaps in the case of the most
frequented walks.

To overcome occasional sloppiness where the difficulty is not
deep-seated, there is no cheaper nor better device than to dress the
surface with coal-ashes. Indeed, if these are used to a sufficient
thickness, they are practically as good as concrete or the best gravel.
When first applied, they are dusty and unpleasant; but the first wetting
lays the dust, and they soon settle to a firm consistency, and make a
very pleasant walk, with the great advantage of being entirely barren,
and preventing the growth of weeds and grass. If the ashes of a village
are collected and screened, the cinders being used at the bottom, and
the surface being smoothly dressed with the finer material, they will
make as satisfactory walks, even where the use is considerable, as any
other material. The color is unobtrusive, and the surface soon becomes
hard enough to bear sweeping. Those who are more ambitious for effect
may prefer a walk made of tar-and-gravel concrete; and this, if well
made, is good, durable, and satisfactory. So far as the improvement
association is concerned, it can find many ways for expending the
difference of cost between ashes and concrete, which will accomplish a
much more telling result.

If gravel can be obtained without too much expense, it may be used with
excellent results to a depth of from one to three inches, according to
the porosity of the subsoil,--more being needed where the ground is
inclined to become soft. In using gravel it is best either to screen it,
using the coarser parts below and the finer parts at the surface, or,
after applying it, to add a thin layer of earth, barely sufficient to
fill its spaces,--to "bind" it so as to give it a firm and solid
consistency. Loose and rattling gravel makes a handsome walk to look at,
but an unpleasant one to walk upon. Nothing is m