272 Oh the Imparlance of Good Roads^. July 



" fown with: feeds among the firfl crop, and taken up after Iviuj;^ 

 only one year, to have been quite filled with this baneful plant 

 or weed ; which was a circumftance hardly to be expedled, 

 unlefs the feed had been mixed among the rye-grafs. Some 

 old farmers inform me, that very little of it was to be fecu 

 till within thefe fifty years, or fince the foM'ing of grafs feeds 

 became general, which is the more remarkable, as the practice 

 of hufbandry has, out of all doubt, received much improve- 

 ment during that period. It appears, therefore, to me an im- 

 portant obje(St, that the farmer fhould be provided with rye- 

 grafs of a right kind and quality : and, to attain this, I know 

 of no better niethod, than that every farmer fliould raife his 

 own feed, which I moll eanieitly recommend. 



Yours, &c. 



A Rural Economist. 



to the conductors of the farmer 3 magazine. 



Gentlemen, 



Good roads are fo necefTary to the improvement of the 

 country, that few objefts are fo interefling to thofe who are 

 concerned in its weliare. Till roads are made good, and the 

 communication between different places be rendered eafy and 

 commodious, it is fcarcely poffible that any capital improve- 

 ment can take place. An unneceflary wafte of labour, to a 

 great extent, is the unavoidable confequence of bad or incon- 

 venient roads ; and perhaps this wafte or lofs, if it could in 

 any degree be accurately computed, amounts, in Britain, to a 

 greater fum per annum., than would be required to put the 

 whole public roads at once into a complete ftate of repair. 



This fubje6l has occurred to my mind, from having lately 

 had occafion to travel the neiu or middle road from your city 

 to Glafgow, which certainly has been laid out and conftru6ted 

 upon more fcientific principles than any other road in this" 

 illand. There is hardly fuch a thing as a fingle rife in the 

 whole line of road ; at leaft, any variation from the level, has 

 been executed in fuch a judicious manner, as fcarcely to be 

 perceptible to the eye, or to incommode the traveller in his 

 pafliige. In a word, the gentlemen who undertook fuch an 

 important work deferve well of the public, by thus provid- 

 ing a communication betwixt two great cities, v/herecn a 

 fingle horfe is capable "of drawing a heavy load with greater 



facility 



