VOl.. XII. NO. 45. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



363 



ROADS. 



Highway- surveyors as tliey are called in New 

 England, are chosen annually in town meeting — 

 assessments are made upon the inhabitants, and 

 they are called upon to work lliem out. The ob- 

 ject of one half of those who thus congregate to- 

 gether, " with pick axe, hoe and harrow" is in re- 

 ality to work out the tax in the easiest way possi- 

 ble, instead of working Oil the road, and they gen- 

 erally succeed in working the public out of the 

 whole of it. Nothing very permanent is done; 

 II good shower often washes away the work ol 

 twenty or thirty men who have most patiently 

 stood' over their task the whole day, watching the 

 going down id' the sun with one eye, and the sur- 

 veyor with the other. We speak from experience, 

 having worked upon the roads in various capaci- 

 ties. It has been our lot to sojourn and pay taxes 

 in as many as three or four comities in the Stale. 



Within a few years past we have paid over one 

 hundred dollars tax in work upon the roads, and 

 we are fully convinced that twenty dollars iu cash 

 judiciously expended by a permanent surveyor, 

 who was possi.'ssed of a moderate poition of com 

 mon sense, would have done more good than the 

 whole amount that we have paid in work. 



If towns would raise in cash, say one half only 

 of what they raise in what is called work, and 

 would let the roads out to honest and responsible 

 contractors, they would have roads that it would 

 be n pleasure to travel, and in reality at a much 

 cheaper rate. Somebody would then be tinder- 

 obligations to keep the roads good, and towns 

 would not have to meet so many bills of cost, in 

 paying for the broken beads oi unfortunate travel- 

 lers. Scarcely a court sits in either of our coun- 

 ties but some delinquent town is arraigned for bad 

 roads. Somebody has received damage in conse- 

 quence of bad roads; and the whole posse coniita- 

 tus of the law, from crier to Chief Justice is em- 

 ployed to find out who is to blame; a fine and 

 hill of costs is finally saddled upon the town suf- 

 ficient to .make turnpikes of all their roads and 

 keep them iii repair for years. One or two towns 

 have adopted the plan of paying their road taxes 

 iu money, and have found by actual experience 

 that they have better roads at one-half their former 

 expense. — .Maine Farmer. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 FARMER'S DIARY. 



It may excite a smile, on the part of many of 

 my brother farmers, to be told that they would ex- 

 perience many beneficial results from the practice 

 of making memorandums of every day's transac- 

 tions; yet 1 may lie able to convince them that 

 such is the fact, and that, however unaccustomed 

 to the use of the pen, there is hardly one of them 

 hut what may briefly note in the evening of each 

 day the business which he or his men have transact- 

 ed. And practice will render it more and more easy. 



Surely it would he a satisfaction to every one to 

 know how many days bis hands have been engag- 

 ed iu preparing the ground for a crop, how much 

 seed he used, at what time he ploughed, planted, 

 sowed or hoed, and at what time his crop was 

 harvested, and what the product. I should also 

 suppose there would be an advantage in knowing 

 at what time to expect his stock to bring forth 

 their young, that he may afford them the necessa- 

 ry attention. 



If be tnnploy men in his hay or harvest field, 

 to be able to ascertain from his diary who were 



employed each day, or if driven from the field by 

 rain, at what hour, that when settling time shall 

 come, he may .know to an hour how long each one 

 has been employed. 



By preserving an account how many shocks of 

 wheat, oats or barley, he has deposited in stacks, 

 or in the barn, or how many loads of hay he has 

 secured, he may form some judgment how much 

 of each he may have to sell. By keeping an ac- 

 count how many baskets of com, or potatoes, lie 

 has drawn in, it is easy to estimate, by measuring 

 the basket, how many bushels he has, and ol 

 course how his land has produced. 



When he thrashes his grain, and cleans it up 

 to know exactly how many bushels his acres have 

 produced ; and if he have put them in at different 

 times, different quantities of seed, or have varied 

 in the mode of preparing the ground, to know 

 which has done the best. I say to be able to as- 

 certain all these points by an examination of his 

 diary, must be attended not only with satisfaction 

 but profit. 



A farmer has a pair of oxen which he concludes 

 to fat. He notes their value at sixty dollars, — he- 

 gins to feed — an account is kept of what they con- 

 sume. He sells them at sixty-five dollars, and as- 

 certains in a few moments whether he is paid for 

 fatting. 



I can say from experience, that it docs not oc- 

 cupy more than ten minutes to make an entry of 

 the day's business, and that all the benefits 1 have 

 enumerated, and many more may be realized. 



It is the practice of many farmers to guess that 

 they have so many bushels of wheat, corn, oats or 

 potatoes per acre, and this guessing is oftentimes 

 very wide from the truth. Or if they take the 

 trouble to measure, they forget all about it before 

 a year comes round. 



Without preserving such an account, how is it 

 possible for the farmer (o ascertain whether he gets 

 paid for his labor; or if he have made experiments 

 [o keep an account of the results for his future 

 guidance ? 



And when noting the business of the day, how 

 easy to add in a few words, the state of the weath- 

 er, thus: snow with high wind, N. W. 



This practice would enable the farmer, when 

 enjoying his fireside in the winter, to review his 

 operations for the past year, and to discover where 

 he might have done belter, and of course he would 

 be qualified to pursue his business to more advan- 

 tage during the coming season. 



Ontario. 



From the Kennebec Farmer. 

 POSTS. 



Tiif.rk have been some remarks published in 

 the Genesee Farmer upon the subject of setting 

 posts butt-end up, in order to ensure more dura- 

 bility. We were last summer informed by Mr. 

 North of Augusta, that he set several years ago two 

 posts near the river at the landing in Augusta, not 

 far from the Kennebec Hotel. One of the posts 

 was set butt-end up, the other was placed the butt- 

 end down. He states that both were equally sound 

 when placed in the ground, but that the one which 

 was set butt-end up, is now sound and good, and 

 and that the other is decayed. 



His mode for accounting for the difference in 

 preservation is the following, viz. that the tubes iu 

 the wood through which the sap ascends while grow- 

 ing, are furnished with valves or separations, to pre- 

 vent the weight of the sap from pressing back. 



That if the posts be set in the ground with the 

 small end up, the moisture would rise in the same 

 manner that the sap did, and thus hasten a decom- 

 position of the wood, but if set in the other posi- 

 tion the valves or partitions would prevent the 

 moisture from rising at all. This theory is plausi- 

 ble, but whether true or not we cannot say, or 

 whether setting a post with the small end down- 

 wards will cause it to last longer than otherwise, 

 we cannot say, from any experience that we have 

 yet had ourselves. One method however, is cer- 

 tain, viz. charring as mentioned by C'arolus. And 

 we have also found that by heating the whole of 

 the post even if it be not charred it will increase 

 its durability. 



There seems to be a sort of low state of vege- 

 table life remaining in wood even after it has been 

 cut for some length of time ; and the action of 

 this vitality does seem, in a manner inexplicable to 

 us, to produce decay. The shipwrights in the 

 English navy-yard have become aware of this sort 

 of morbid life, if we may so speak, and they have 

 adopted the plan of soaking their ship timber in a 

 weak solution of corrosive sublimate, in order to 

 destroy tliis kind of action and preventing what is 

 called the dry rot in timber. We have lately re- 

 ceived the February number of the Mechanic's 

 Magazine in which we find some remarks on the 

 subject of preventing the decay of timber by satu- 

 rating it with lime. 



From the United States GazctU. 

 THE L.OCUSTS. 

 A verv respectable inhabitant who has resided 

 in Germantown during a life of 74 years, mentions 

 the curious fact that locusts not only appear every 

 seventeen years, but that they make their appear- 

 ance in great numbers always on the 25th of May. 

 Our informant recollects their advent on the 25th 

 of May, 1766, then six years old ; he has since re- 

 corded their coming on the 25ih of May, 1783 

 25th of May, 1S00 

 25lh of May, 1817 

 Their holes may now be seen in ploughing, or 

 under boards laying on the ground, preparing to 

 come forth on Sunday, 25th inst. 



It is remarked that occasionally a few locusts 

 are seen creeping out of their hiding places before 

 the 26th, but they return again to join the great 

 crowd. 



. Some two months since, a highly respected 

 friend, who has resided all of bis long and useful 

 life in the vicinity, left for us a notice of the ap- 

 proach of the locusts, and an account of their time 

 and customs. — The piece did not reach our hand 

 until it had appeared elsewhere. It was instruc- 

 tive with reference to this subject, anil contained 

 a remark that the locust seasons had usually been 

 characterized as those of plentiful harvests of 

 grain, &c. 



ITEMS. 



Death to Caterpillars, fyc. ' We can affirm from 

 almost daily experience, that strong lime water will 

 kill every kind of caterpillar, and even worms, 

 snails, lizards, frogs, toads, snakes, and fishes.' — 

 Gardener's Mag. 



Soap Suds sprinkled on trees from a common 

 garden pump is recommended as retaining its effi- 

 cacy longer than lime water. When applied to 

 trees in the early part of the year it seems to pre- 

 vent insects from settling upon them. 



Steaming has been tried with better effec.t than 

 smoking to clear ships of veiuin. 



