n8 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



depth and far reach of the forces which this handshaking ot 

 the seas will bring to pass. 



While the linking of the oceans as now undertaken did not 

 enter into the calculations of our forefathers during the early 

 days of the Republic, the subject of navigable canals and 

 national highways as agencies in the settlement, development 

 and unity of the country was profoundly considered, and a 

 great system of these means of intercourse and transportation 

 was the dream of the most able statesmen of the time. Be- 

 fore the Colonies had become a nation, Washington had found 

 occasion to visit the Ohio country, and, as a military man, saw 

 the importance of good roads as a means for conquest, safety 

 and peace. When, as the first President of the United States, 

 the obligations to a broad statesmanship were constantly pres- 

 ent to his mind and heart, his early experiences in regard to 

 easy interstate communication were expanded, intensified, and 

 insisted upon on all suitable occasions. "Do you not think," 

 he writes to Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, "Do 

 you not think, my dear sir, that the credit, the saving, the 

 convenience of this country all require that our great roads 

 leading from one place to another should be straightened, 

 shortened and established by law? To me these things seem 

 indispensably necessary, and it is my opinion they will take 

 place in time." Before this there had been some effort at 

 systematic road-making, but knowledge and skill seem to 

 have been woefully lacking, and the highways of the day were 

 hardly worthy of the name. The Old York Road, as it was 

 called, running from New York to Philadelphia, was at in- 

 tervals throughout its length a quagmire during two-thirds 

 of the year, where a number of stalled wagons could often be 

 seen, the drivers unhitching and coupling up in order to 



