STATE REPORTS OF AGRICULTURE. 493 
and better the herbage; the more abundant the roots, the greater the 
benefit to the soil, both as regards pulverization and fertility. On wet, 
low lands, or very light, sandy soils, the endeavor to make clover a fer. 
tilizer sufficient to redeem such lands and place them in a good con- 
dition for corn or wheat, or even pasturing, would prove a waste of 
money and labor. 
As good roads are closely connected with agriculture and other promi- 
nent interests, the legislature appropriated $400 for one cr more pre- 
miums on the science of road-making, and the best methods of superin- 
tending their construction and repair, and authorized the printing of 
three thousand copies. Three of these essays are printed in the appen- 
dix of the report. As amethod of economy to the towns, it is found 
cheaper to have roads well built, and to keep them constantly in high 
condition, by daily attention, than to undertake their annual repair, as 
was formerly the custom in New England. In Waltham, for instance, 
with sixty miles of roads, a few men have been employed for twelve 
years past, to watch for the beginnings of any wear upon them, and 
mend a defect when it first appears, instead of waiting till the trouble 
becomes serious and then setting a large force at work. One man, with 
a shovel full of broken stene, can prevent what it may require half a 
dozen men with a team to remedy, after a few months’ neglect. It costs 
that town, to keep its admirable roads in order, and clear of snow-drifts, 
about $66 a mile. In the adjoining town of Newton, where the roads 
are kept in incomplete repair, on the old system, the cost is $176 per 
mile, nearly double, and for very inferior roads. In Waltham the principal 
streets and roads are well macadamised, and sustain loads of six tons 
without being cut into ruts. On passing the boundaries of the town, 
the changed character of other roads, in their ruts, mud, and neglected 
repairs is painfully evident. The heaviest tax paid by the people of 
the State is that for keeping up what one of their writers denominates 
“the worst roads in existence. ” 
NEW YORK. 
The twenty-eighth volume of the Transactions of the New York State 
Agricultural Society (which was not received till after our last report 
was placed in the hands of the printer) comprises the report of Dr. Car- 
malt, commissioner for investigating the causes of abortion in cows; 
several addresses at the State and county fairs; abstracts of the reports 
of about one hundred town and county farmers’ clubs; essays on new 
American grapes; on salt as a manure, and for domestic purposes; on 
the solubility of phosphate materials; the construction and heating of 
dairy-rooms, and the reasons why clover is beneficial as a preparatory 
crop for wheat. Dr. Carmalt’s labors have resulted in overthrowing 
most of the preconceived theories and conjectures as to the causes of abor- 
tion in cows, and he is collecting a fund of information on the treatment of 
cows by dairy farmers, and the character of the vegetable products of 
the farms affected by, as well as those free from, the malady. This infor- 
mation is important, though no certain resuits as to the causes and pre- 
vention of the mischief have yet been reached. The importation of 
thorough-bred stock was large during the year, principally of Jersey 
cattle, a breed rapidly coming into favor; likewise of Cotswold, Lincoln, 
and Silesian sheep. 
Mr. White, president of Cornell University, thinks it a great mistake 
that agricultural colleges should be expected to give primary instruction 
in the rudiments of agriculture and the mechanic arts; that is, that in 
agriculture “ they should take young men who never touched a spade; 
