The Canadian Horticulturist. 417 



True economy in expenditure for street improvement is seldom understood 

 in towns, and still more rarely is it put in practice. Streets are constructed'and 

 maintained by large amounts annually appropriated from the general funds, but 

 the appropriations are sub-divided and scattered over the street area in such 

 small sums that the work performed, lacking the uniformity and unfty so neces- 

 sary to strong and durable results, is quickly absorbed by the mud. Fifty 

 dollars is spent in an endeavor to cover water with gravel, with the result that 

 the money is lost sight of within a year ; whereas a proper amount spent in 

 underdraining and carrying the water away would accomplish results that would 

 be of benefit for a quarter of century. 



GOOD ROADS IDEAS. 



AKE the tire wider and the road better. Many farmers' clubs are 

 expressing themselves in favor of broad tires and convict labor 

 on highways. Produce don't produce until it is marketed. The 

 report of Pro^. H. L. Waters, dean of the State Aajricultural 

 College, on the result of tests made by the difference in draft of 

 wide and narrow-tired wheels, states that " by using the wide 

 tires an average of 53 pounds of draft is saved. A horse is com- 

 puted to exert a pull of 150 pounds for ten hours per day, travelling at the rate 

 of 23^ miles per hour. On this basis the wide tires save slightly more than 

 one-third of the exertion of the horse." 



An Illinois farmer who has paid $1,200 road tax on the highways adjoining 

 his farm, says they are no better now than they were years ago. It's the same 

 way most everywhere. Real progress and not temporary tinkering is what we 

 should demand. Roads are the veins and arteries of commerce. The better 

 they are the better the trade circulation. 



In Holland, where they have the best roads in the world, it is said that a 

 farmer will haul, with a team of large dogs, as heavy a load as can be drawn 

 over a bad road with a team of horses. This reminds us how dog-gone bad 

 our roads are. 



This country has 1,300,000 miles of common roads This would encircle 

 the globe fifty times, or go to the moon more than five times. But if most of 

 them would go there just once and not come back, earth would be just about 

 as happy. — New York Farmer. 



A French gardener accomplished the unprecedented feat of raising aspara- 

 gus in October. The Czar had a bunch of it for his dinner on October 6, and 

 the price of it was 90 francs, or 60 cents for each stalk. 



