FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 345 



guarantee that the fruit is all alike and all up to standard. Do not scrape up 

 the culls and put them in the bottom and trim the top with nice looking fruit as it 

 not only hurts you but it makes the consumer suspicious of all fruit coming from 

 your neighborhood. 



GOOD ROADS. 



WM. L. WEBBER, SAGINAW, AT SAGINAW COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



It is to be hoped the experience of those counties which have adopted the county 

 road law will be such that its adoption may become general throughout the State. 

 It is not supposed that the law is perfect in its present form; experience may show 

 where improvements can be made. But, as every intelligent person concedes, it is 

 idle to hope for good roads under the old township system. Authority should exist 

 somewhere, so that a system of main thoroughfares for the county may be provided 

 for, and may be improved uniformly and kept in good repair. Intelligent direction 

 and supervision being essential not only in the construction, but also in the main- 

 tenance of good roads, for economy and best quality, the management and control of 

 these roads and their supervision should be uniform. In a county like Saginaw it 

 is especially important, where there are so many bridges to be built and maintained, 

 and if the cost of constructing these thoroughfares and these bridges and maintain- 

 ing the same could be placed upon the county at large it would greatly relieve the 

 townships and give them more opportunity to improve the local roads leading to the 

 thoroughfares. These thoroughfares, well constructed and maintained, would be a 

 continual object lesson to the townships, so that the roads most used in their own 

 immediate locality would be improved in a permanent manner. 



It is also to be hoped that agitation will not cease until we shall have a further 

 amendment to the constitution which will permit of the passage and enforcement 

 of laws, by which the expense of making roads may be, in part at least, paid out of 

 the State treasury. 



MIXED FARMING IN WEXFORD COUNTY. 



BARTON COLVIN, AT WEXFORD COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



You may wish to know what the result has been with me in mixed farming, the 

 amount of my sales and other details. In answer I will say that we bought our 

 present farm 12 years ago, with 65 acres under cultivation, and have made improve- 

 ments each year until we have 150 acres under the plow at present. The average 

 number of acres worked is about 100 per year, and the average sales from the farm 

 aside from timber sold have been over $1,200 per year, or $12 per acre, or a total of 

 $14,400. I believe that many of the failures in farming are caused by the farmers 

 not keeping posted in the amount of crops raised, the prices in different sections 

 and the demands of the people. They don't read enough, but work too hard with- 

 out stopping to think why they don't succeed. Lawyers could not practice law with- 

 out books, or merchants do business without price lists, and it is so with the farmer. 

 He must keep himself posted up to date if he makes a success of his business. We 

 should all be closely connected with our Agricultural College and avail ourselves of 

 the many things they find of benefit to the farmers by experimenting there. I don't 

 believe that farming of any kind can be made profitable when carried on in a loose, 

 slip-shod manner and in a spirit of indifference. The farmer must believe in him- 

 self and be interested in his work. Some have larger and some smaller farms than 

 ours. Locations and conditions differ, but whatever be the size of the farm, 

 wherever the locality or whatever the conditions, mixed farming is far safer and 

 more profitable than specialties. 

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