Renovating and Improving Old Homes 117 



brush interfere with their growing crops, or with ornamental 

 or fruit trees, they are despatched. Love of order prevails 

 everywhere, about the barn, by the roadside, as well as about 

 the home-buildings, and beauty and thrift go hand in 

 hand. 



We are largely creatures of habit of thought or of labor, 

 and anything done thoroughly, systematically, beautifully 

 in one direction helps us more or less in all other lines of 

 work. 



Farm-roads 



Good farm-roads are a necessity for quick and easy trans- 

 portation of the products of the farm. The principles of 

 construction of such are the same as for other roads,* and 

 where there is an abundance of stones they may be utilized 

 for foundation and unsightly objects removed from the sur- 

 face of the land or roadside. 



Road-making is very expensive business, and few farmers 

 find profit enough in their work to warrant the expense of 

 long lines of roadway. Only such roads as are absolutely 

 needed should be made, and the expense of construction 

 will be felt less if only a short length is constructed at one 

 time. Whenever stones are being picked up from the 

 land, a convenient way of getting rid of them is to excavate 

 a piece of roadway and cover with a dressing of gravel on 

 top. This is far better than dumping them along the road- 

 sides or in some other equally conspicuous place, where 

 brush and weeds will grow up through and about them in 

 such a manner that they cannot be eradicated except by 

 finally removing the stones and tearing them out root and 

 branch. 



* See Chapter VIII, on Roads and Roadside Improvements. 



