154 FARMEKS' INSTITUTES. 



•paying merely the cost of loading and unloading. It would be well to pile 

 a few extra loads of gravel at each cro s-road intersection, so as to have 

 material on hand for small repairs. A wheelbarrow load of gravel used at 

 -the right time will oftentimes save the necessity of using many wagon loads 

 .after the road is spoilt. 



In closing I would recommend to every one of you to use wide tired 

 wheels. Wiih wide tires every loaded wagon becomes a road rolbr instead 

 ■of a road destroyer, as it is with narrow tires. It will avail but little if I 

 get wheels with wide tires while three or four of my neighbors use narrow 

 wheels, for their narrow tires will spoil the road for me, and my wide tires 

 will lift the mud out of the holes made by their narrow ones. But the 

 adoption of wide tires cannot take place all at once, it is a matter of time. 

 Let each man resolve tliat he will never again buy a narrow-rimmed wheel 

 and in a few years there will be a complete change. It will be awkward and 

 inconvenient at first, but it will soon be fashionable, and the man with 

 narrow tires on his wagon will be looked upon as an old fogy, an enemy to 

 good roads and way behind the times. These wide wheels will have a 

 wonderful effect upon the roads — less labor will be required to keep the 

 roads in shape and greciter loads can be hauled. Here is an opportunity for 

 each man to show his public spirit. Don't buy a narrow tired wagon wheel. 



Mr. Wm. Webber: Last night Judge Tennant spoke of the enormous cost 

 to the farmer of hauling produce by rail, viz., 1 cent or I^ cent per ton per 

 mile. Where is the farmer who can haul for himself over country roads for 

 less than 20 cents a ton a mile? I suggest this to emphasize the loss of 

 -ordinary roads. I heartily endorse the remarks of the paper relative to wide 

 tires, there is great saving in them. 



Mr A. B. Payne : My brother got 6 inch wide tired wagons to haul wheat 

 •over the fields, and I used them for hauling wood. I now use 4 inch tires, 

 .and a man couldn't give me a narrow tired wagon if I had to use it. 



IMPKOVEMENT OF MUCK SWAMPS. 



BY PROF. R. C. CARPENTER. 

 PRESENT CONDITION. 



The greater portion of the State of Michigan is rolling land, principally 

 gravel or sandy loam, interspersed with swamps. These swamps vary in 

 area from a few square rods to as many square miles; usually, however, they 

 are very small. 



The principal drainage needed in the State is for the improvement of such 

 marshes. Large tracts of low lying clay lands are found in the eastern and 

 southeastern parts of the State, from Port Huron to Monroe, and also in 

 various river valleys of the State. Tile drainage has been practiced with 

 thoroughness in the' southeastern part of the State, but only to a small ex- 

 tent in other localities. My own impression is, that more miles of tile have 

 been laid in Lenawee and Monroe couvities than in all the rest of the State 

 -combined. 



