66 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



before. Bushes should be cut from wall to wall, and the prac- 

 tice of cutting should be followed every year until they are 

 entirely eradicated. 



I am aware that there is great opposition among the tax pay- 

 ers to the raising of money by direct taxation to build permanent 

 roads, but they say not a word when taxed the interest on a 

 quarter of the valuation of the town to be laid out annually to 

 keep mud roads in repair, an annual expenditure with no hope of 

 getting any return either in satisfactory transportation or other- 

 wise. I would not have it understood that I would have such a 

 tax levied upon our property as would cripple financially every 

 town in the State for the sake of first class Macadam roads, but 

 1 do think with better men at the helm, making a more thorough 

 study of the science of road building we can, even with the money 

 raised, do better and more satisfactory work in this line. 



We may hold aloof from the building of better roads, but pro- 

 gression is the watchword, and along with the progress of other 

 things will come the demand for improved highways. Think of 

 it! With forty or fifty thousand dollars we can build a perma- 

 nent road across the county of York from Northwest to South- 

 east, which in my opinion would develop the agricultural inter- 

 ests of the county to a greater degree than would the investment 

 of the same amount of money in any other enterprise. Farmers 

 living in the rural districts would not have that dire dread of 

 mud and dust that now confronts them, and lowery weather, with 

 loads and teams well protected from the storm, would be chosen 

 to market the products of the farm. It would offer a better 

 opportunity for those living away from the seashore market to 

 compete with others living nearby, and a way thus opened would 

 encourage the raising of small fruits, poultry and eggs, where 

 the industry is not thought of today. 



We have improved our buildings, we have improved our cattle 

 and our horses, everything with which we have to do in our 

 civilization has been rapidly changed and greatly improved, but 

 we have the same old roads, muddy after every shower and 

 dusty after the sunshine. 



The roads of North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia have 

 been for decades the solace and comfort of the people. They are 

 built almost entirely by convicts whose duty it is to liquidate in 

 some way the injury done the people through the perpetration of 



