SECKETAPvY'S rORTFOLIO. 381 



cure. It brings no pay except for labor, and is therefore often taken in rota- 

 tion by all the farmers in a district, and so all sorts of men hold the office. 

 But tlic supervisor is ''monarch of all he surveys." JTo can order out the 

 property-holders to work on the road when and where he will. He can run 

 the ditclies straight or crooked. He can cruelly plow into your nice turf in 

 front of your very house-lawn, if he chooses. *'IIis right there is none to 

 dispute." Add to this the fact that in spring and fall, when roads are muddy, 

 every man that rides or drives on the road is also an autocrat, and can poach 

 up your turf the whole length of your farm, if he will, and it is plain that 

 road-side ornamentation in the country is not an easy thing, even if one sets 

 about it. Formerly, too, cows and hogs roamed the streets, but now that nui- 

 sance is almost everywhere abated. People began to see that since each farmer 

 pays for all highways running through or past his farm the same price per 

 acre as for the rest of his farm, and pays yearly taxes on them, too, his neigh- 

 bors plainly have no right to use Ids road-sides for their liog yard or coiu ^^^cts- 

 ture. The public have a right to the proper and necessary use of them for 

 travel, and nothing more. All else belongs to the land-owner. It logically 

 follows that the latter has the right to improve and ornament his road-sides, 

 and reap all benefits arising from such improvement; also, that the supervi- 

 sors and the traveling public have no right to hinder his doing so. But how 

 shall we prevent their ruining our road-sides by driving on them in wet times? 

 Some throw down rails and chunks, but the irate and independent public will 

 jump out of their wagons and throw the rails aside with a jerk and an oath. 



I know but one effective way, and that is to do what should be clone anyway, 

 viz. : set a row of shade trees on each side of the road, about six feet from each 

 fence, and double stake and guard them while young. The laws in most 

 States give the right to plant and protect thus. The trees will not only be a 

 great ornament and blessing themseles, but will make it possible to have a 

 lawn-like strip of grass, uncut by wheels and hoofs, all along the road-sides. 

 Most of our country roads are about 60 feet wide. If, now, we allow 32 feet 

 for the turnpike, or road-way and ditches, there remains room for a nice grass 

 plot, fourteen feet wide on each side. But with a row of trees, well guarded 

 by stakes, running nearly through the middle of each, it will be impossible 

 for wagons to drive there. And with care, a nice, straight, smooth strip of 

 grass may be had, which can be mowed twice a year by the farmer with good 

 returns in cash, and in improved appearance. 



W. I. CHA^MBERLAIiT. 



Summit Co., Ohio, 



A LIST OF THE NATIVE CLIMBING PLANTS OF MICHIGAN. 



Not being able to meet with you I have prepared very hastily the following 

 list of native climbers. 



It is very interesting to observe the various methods those vines have of get- 

 ting themselves up in the world and according to their different habits and 

 behavior in this regard they may be divided into four or five sections as fol- 

 lows : 



Section 1, Boot Climlcrs. One species climbs in this manner — the Poison 

 Ivy or Rhus toxicodendron. All are doubtlessly personally acquainted with 

 this very poisonous vine. 



