FENCES AND FARM BUILDINGS. 81 



water from other ground, and the roofs should be supplied with 

 eave-troughs, discharging into cisterns or outside of the yard. 



It will always pay to build a rough shed over that part of the 

 yard which is to contain the pit or hollow for the manure, and the 

 yard drainage, — especially if the droppings of the cattle are daily 

 removed from the rest of the yard and added to a compost under 

 the sheds. 



FARM ROADS. 



I would not feel justified in recommending that extra men and 

 teams be employed to make substantial farm roads, but there are 

 at least a hundred half days in the year, when the regular force 

 of the farm can be occupied with such work — adding by every 

 hour's work to the permanent future efficiency of the teaming 

 appliances. Any thing which will enable each team, in all future 

 time, to carry a heavier load than is now practicable, or to carry 

 the same load more easily, must add to the permanent money 

 value of the farm. 



The foundation of all good roads — at least when any improve- 

 ment of the natural roadway is necessary, — lies in good drainage. 

 Roads are made soft only by water. Either the subsoil is so 

 badly drained that the water of the surface soil cannot sink into 

 it, or it is so wet that the frost is a long time in leaving it in the 

 spring. So long as the frost remains in the subsoil it forms an 

 effectual barrier to the descent of the water which makes the 

 surface soft. Land on a well-drained subsoil parts with its frost 

 very much earlier in the spring than that on an undrained one 

 does. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that the subsoil 

 be as dry as it can be made. 



Fig. 14. 



Thorough draining will not make a road always hard, but it will 

 very much lessen the duration of the muddy condition, both when 



