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FARMERS' REGISTER— SOAP— ROAD LAW. 



tlie smut in wheat, it is necessary to sow no wheat 

 which is not peiicctly ripe. Since that time, I 

 have taken more care than ever to let my seed- 

 wheat ripen, and I liave not since liad a head at- 

 taclced by that disease. I liave, besides, made 

 this observation, tliat the years succeeding wet 

 harvests, in wliicli the wheat ripened w^ith diffi- 

 culty, produce nuich smut in wheat. 



Let us return to laUen wheat. My first trial, 

 which I have since repeated several times, lias al- 

 Avays succeeded with me, and I am led to believe 

 tl-iftt, provided the grain has attained its lull size, 

 the greener the wheat is cut, the better will be the 

 product. Rye which is too rank may be cut in the 

 same way, and with the same results." 



SOAP. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 



Mr. L. Tucker — It is in vain to urge that Agri- 

 cultural papers are of no use — the short article on 

 making soap, in the Genesee Farmer, 22d Febru- 

 ary, foUo 57, ir rightly understood, is worth at least 

 five years subscription to every family who has 

 soap to make. 



Some years ago I was knowing to a circum- 

 stance as follows : A man, engaged in the pot 

 ash business, had plenty of soap grease and leys. 

 He set his pot ash boiler to manufacturing soap. 

 He used leys from, five to ten days old, and the 

 grease would not mix. He worked al3ove four 

 days, and as often as he let the kettles rest, the 

 grease and ley would separate. This stuff' was 

 put into barrels, and some of it sold to a clothier, 

 and came very near spoilm^ all his cloth, and the 

 rest was mostly wasted. Had the ley been run 

 through fresh lime it would have mixed with the 

 grease instantly, and muchexpense and risk saved. 

 Ley, on stancUng a fcAv days, will combine with 

 carbonic acid, and will not mix with grease. 

 Lime will take this acid away, and then there is 

 no difficulty in making soap. katio. 



THE KOAD LAW. 



From the Lexington (Va.) Union. 



" The bent of civilization, (says one, entitled to 

 consideration,) is to make good things cheaper;" 

 and the most efficient mode of doing this, is to bring 

 distant places nearer, by wefi constructed thorough- 

 fares. No Virginian, however, — and especially, 

 no inhabitant of the county of Rockbridge — VN^ould 

 be willing that the scale of civiUzation should be 

 graduated by the character of our roads. Our 

 state is notorious fjr her highways throughout the 

 Union; and if the horses of "Old Virginny" never 

 tire, they are better off' than their visitors from the 

 plains of the south, or the turnpikes of the north 

 — and through our own county, would be the "/i;c, 

 labor hoc opas^^ -part of a journey from the sea- 

 board to Santa Fe. 



This is not to be attributed altogether to our 

 want of enterprise, or of topographical abilitj'; lor 

 we have theopuiionof one in that line, that almost 

 every man in our county was a natural engineer. 

 It may, I think, be traced to the injudicious ])ro- 

 visions of our road law, and, as the spirit of im- 

 provement is now awakening in our county, it in- 

 terests us, that any obstacle, springing from defec- 

 tive legislation, should, if practicable, be removed. 



No laAV ceui be thoroughly earned into execution, 

 if it is not sustained by the moral sense of tlie 

 community; LUid tliis is not, because it is unjust iu 



its entire organization, in lading the burden of 

 opinion and keeping in repair the roads of tlio 

 country, altogether upon the tithables — that is, 

 upon persons, not upon property, when in fact 

 there would seem to be a peculiar fitness in mak- 

 ing this a land-charge, as the immediate efiect of 

 good roads, is to enhance the value of that species 

 of property, by giving mcreased fiicilities to the 

 transportation of its productions. Under this sys- 

 tem, the mechanic, who works in his sho]5, and 

 owns neither land, wagon, caixiage, or horse, pays 

 ibr tire opening of a road, for the better access to 

 mill, by some half a dozen indi\iduals, aa much aa 

 any of those, whose convenience is aided, orwhose 

 property is increased in value. But if the road ia 

 opened by unjust taxation, it is kept by unequal 

 contribution of labor. " All male laboring persons 

 of the age of sixteen years or more, except such 

 as are masters of two or more male laboring slaves 

 of the age of sixteen years or more, shaU be ap- 

 pointed by the court to work on some public road." 

 Thus it may happen, that an overseer with a son 

 seventeen years old, may do more work, than hia 

 employer, through whose^arm the road passes — 

 and here again the mechanic, Avith little interest, 

 is held CO ecjual contribution. But a system might 

 be tolerated though unjust and opjiressive, if it was 

 efficient; but this is deplorably weak. The sur- 

 vej'or will not call as often as necessary upon his 

 hands, because he feels unwiUing to be the instru- 

 ment of exactmg a burdensome tax; and then no 

 jury wiU impose a fine upon a surveyor, because 

 they know his difficulties. And even when the 

 tithables come to the road to prepare it for a ses- 

 sion of the grand juiy, a work engaged in reluc- 

 tantly, and moreover, unfamiliar to all, goes on 

 slowly by hands who have to come five or six 

 miles, and then return as far by night. 



No road, even the best located, coidd be kept 

 in complete repair under such a system; and how 

 lamentable then the deficiency, Avhen appUed to 

 our roads, which climb a hiU only because the 

 ground is less valuable for agriculture than the 

 vale below — where a long circuit is made because 

 a line fence is in the way — Avhere huge rocks are 

 left to wear away by the gradual attrition of the 

 wheels — and where mud-holes are mourned over 

 as a neccssaiy evil. And this original fault of lo- 

 cation is to be laid at the door of our road law. 

 If any one applies for a road, the viewers^ are ap- 

 pointed upon his nomination, and are, of course, 

 men who agree, (honestly enough, no doubt,) 

 vvitli him in nitcrest and opinion. Ujjon their re- 

 port, if unopposed by others in the neighborhood, 

 the road is similarly established; and thus, if by 

 running up and down hill, and turning to the right 

 and to the left, the neighborhood can be accom- 

 modated, the public interest is but little regarded. 

 And this evil soon becomes a parent one, almost 

 unsusceptible of remedy; for men begin to build 

 upon a road, and make their improvements, andlay 

 out their farms by it, until the road, as it were, 

 takes root amongst them, and removal is almost 

 impossike. Other objections have been urged 

 against the present system; but, if those I have 

 noticed be not exaggerated, they are sufficient to 

 Ccdl for some attempt at improvement; and he of 

 our legislators, Avho would project and carry 

 through a "road law, free from the; defects of the 

 present, and in other respects efficient, would merit 

 our thanks as a public benefactor. J.J. 



