280 



Roads. 



Vol. III. 



they cannot, after being used as milkers, be 

 fattened for the butchers. The York and 

 Durham cows suit them best. 



In certain constitutions, however, and, to a 

 certain extent, there is a compatibility be- 

 tween fattening and milking. 



Mr. Knight says, the disposition to give 

 much and rich milk, and to fatten rapidly, are 

 to some extent at variance with each other; 

 but I have seen cases in which cows which 

 have given a great deal of rich milk, have 

 given birth to most excellent oxen, the cows 

 themselves, however, always continuing small 

 and thin whilst giving milk. 



I very confidently believe in the possibility 

 of obtaining a breed of cows which would 

 afford fine oxen, and would themselves fatten 

 well ; but, as great milkers require much more 

 food than others, the farmer who rears oxen, 

 does not think much, perhaps not enough, 

 about milk, and is in the habit (which is cer- 

 tainly wrong) of breeding his bulls from cows 

 which have become his best, owing only to 

 their having been bad milkers. 



In the selection of bulls, besides attending 

 to those properties which belong to the male, 

 we ought to be careful also, that they are de- 

 scended from a breed of good milkers, at least 

 if we wish the future stock to possess this 

 property. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Roads. 



Good roads and good markets cheer the weary farmer 

 on his way. 



As the Cabinet is understood to be devoted 

 to every thing that has relation to the inter- 

 ests of the farmer, I take the liberty of for- 

 warding a few lines on the subject of roads 

 and road mending; than which, there are few 

 subjects which have a more intimate connec- 

 tion with the interests of an agricultural com- 

 munity. 



Many of our roads have, from various 

 causes, been very injudiciously located, but as 

 they are now generally the division lines of 

 contiguous farms, and the habits of our peo- 

 ple have become conformed to them, it would 

 not be an easy matter materially to change 

 their position ; so that we must submit to what 

 we cannot easily remedy ; and continue to 

 travel over steep hills, when it would be much 

 easier to go round them, or to approach their 

 summits at a less angle by oblique direction. 

 In the selection of juries to lay out new roads, 

 it would be well for the judges of our courts 

 to display their powers of discrimination, in 

 selecting the most intelligent and enlightened 

 men to be found in the country ; and it would 

 not be amiss, if those thus delegated to per- 

 form such an important trust, in which not 

 only the present generation, but posterity will 



have an interest, should be endowed with 

 a full proportion of moral courage, so that 

 they may not be swayed by local or individual 

 predilections to the prejudice of the interests 

 of the community at large. 



After roads have been laid out, confirmed 

 by the court, and opened in obedience to, and 

 according to law, the public are the undoubted 

 proprietors of them, and have the rightthrough 

 their proper officers of the exclusive jurisdic- 

 tion and care of them, to the full width and 

 length they have been so laid out. Now it 

 must be obvious to every person who moves 

 to and fro in our county, (Montgomery) that 

 in numerous cases our highways are much 

 straightened and contracted, and in some in- 

 stances full one-third of the public right is 

 discovered to be over the fence, within the 

 inclosure of some individual, who appears to 

 have more regard to the indulgence of his 

 own selfish propensities than to the interest 

 or convenience of the public. 



The benefit derived by these encroach ments 

 is very questionable, and it is believed that in 

 most cases of the kind, the loss of reputation 

 is more than a counterpois for it ; for in every 

 case those who knowingly interfere with, ob- 

 struct, or deprive others of their just rights, 

 as certainly mar and part with a portion, or 

 the whole of their reputation. This is a sub- 

 ject that requires the attention of grand juries, 

 and if supervisors will still continue to ne- 

 glect their duties after having pledge<l them- 

 selves for their true and faithful performance, 

 it would seem just and reasonable that an ex- 

 ample should be made, by the infliction of ad- 

 equate punishment by the proper authority. — 

 Another delinquency, less common, but more 

 dangerous, exists in some situations, in per- 

 mitting individuals to occupy the public high- 

 way for quarrying stone, or other purposes, 

 without the shadow of rightful pretext for so 

 doing, and to the manifest injury and danger 

 of persons traveling a regularly laid out high- 

 way. One instance of this kind has been 

 very slowly, but regularly progressing for 

 many years in apparent disregard of the pub- 

 lic safety and convenience, and so far as the 

 writer has knowledge, without the interfer- 

 ence of the proper officers vvliose duty it is 

 to prevent such injurious encroachments. 



In conclusion, I shall simply call attention 

 to the want of intelligence and practical skill 

 which is often noticed in the, so called, repairs 

 of roads ; in many cases the labors of supervi- 

 sors seem to be sedulously devoted to making 

 them worse instead of better, and this arises in 

 most cases evidently from want of skill and 

 judgment, rather than fVom evil design, and tho 

 only remedy that can be applied in such cases 

 is to exerci.-^e more care in the selection of 

 supervisors. The persons best qualified for 

 this office won't serve; they think therQ 14 



