2oQ BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



That 13 the way to plant trees by the roadside ; and, if we 

 had adopted that plan twenty-five years ago, every road in 

 this ►State would have been a beautiful avenue, protected in 

 summer and sheltered in winter. 



There is still another point I want to touch upon, and 

 perhaps I shall touch the manufacturers of road scrapers. I 

 do not want to do anybody an injustice, but I do think that 

 the road scraper in unskilful hands is the worst, machine that 

 was ever brought into a town. The idea of scraping back 

 into the centre of a road the old worn-out dust that has been 

 ground and ground for the last twenty years into an impalpa- 

 ble powder, and calling it a road, is absurd. It makes that 

 same kind of mud that we have been talking about this after- 

 noon. Up in Concord, Mass., they do things pretty well. 

 They teach us philosophy, and they have taught us something 

 about road making. Up there they have got some pretty 

 good roads, and they make them by carting the worn-out 

 material away and then carting in fresh gravel, and their 

 roads are among the best that you will find in the State. 

 They employ as road commissioners three of the best men 

 in the town, and one of them, I think, is an engineer. I 

 think the suggestion of the gentleman on my left is one of 

 the best that has been made here. Get the right men, and 

 then, w T hen we get the right men, this Board some day will 

 help to teach them how to do their work properly. 



The Chairman. There are two speakers present, one of 

 whom comes from the most beautiful locality, perhaps, that 

 I know of. I enjoy it every time I see it, and I do not see 

 it often enough. The roadsides have no fences ; there are 

 beautiful trees and nice houses. I refer to the town of 

 Greenfield. We have a gentleman with us who always 

 entertains us, and we are always delighted to hear from him. 

 1 wish Mr. Gpjxxell would say something to us on the sub- 

 ject of doing away with wayside fences. 



Mr. Gihxxell. I am afraid, Mr. Chairman, that you have 

 " waked up the wrong passenger." Doing away with fences 

 is prevailing to a considerable extent. In a village where a 

 house is as high or higher than the street, it does very well. 

 If a house is not so high as the street, the aesthetic effect is 

 very bad ; the house does not look so well and the road does 



