144 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



try their fortune in some of these new fields of en- 

 terprise. This ever-present thought of "selling 

 out" greatly retards the introduction of permanent 

 improvements, lint who shall say that the effect 

 on the whole has not been beneficial — that the 

 country at large is not the richer for it? The 

 standard of agriculture in the older- settled States 

 would have been far higher, had it not been for 

 the new, rich lands at the West. That in many 

 cases it would have been far better to have devel- 

 oped the resources of the soil at home, rather than 

 to seek to acquire sudden wealth in the new States, 

 there can be no doubt. Much personal misery and 

 great national loss have been the result of this reck- 

 less speculation. But these are merely the concom- 

 itant evils of that spirit of enterprise without which 

 the interior of this vast continent vv-ould still have 

 been an unbroken forest. 



HOW SHALL. WE IMPEOVE OUE HIGHWAYS! 



We make the following extracts from several 

 communications received on this important subject. 

 They will be read with interest. 



TnE modes of expending money in repairing 

 roads are ditferent in different States. In Penn- 

 sylvania they appoint or elect a supervisor fur each 

 township, whose duty it is to keep the roads in 

 good repair, and bring in his bill for the same, 

 which, without regard to amount, nmst be paid. 

 Tliis mode is, in my opinion, objectionable, from 

 the fact that it is in the power of one man to ex- 

 pend any amount of money, without control. — 

 Again, with one supervisor in each township, to 

 work the roads in a reasonable time, he must em- 

 ploy more hands than he can work to advantage. 

 It is a fact, I tliink, that twelve men will do more 

 work than forty or fifty, according to the number 

 employed. 



In New .Jersey the roads are worked differently. 

 At the annual town meeting, held in April, it is 

 left to a vote of the voters of the township to say 

 how much money shall be raised by tax for roads. 

 There is an amount fixed upon for that purpose. 

 The township is laid off in small districts, and each 

 district has an overseer, elected by the voters of 

 the district. The town committee apportions the 

 amount of money voted for roads to the several 

 dbitricts, according to length, condition, &c. If, in 

 the judgment of the over-'^eer, tiie amount appor- 

 tioned to his district will not make the roads in a 

 lawful condition, he calls one or more of the town 

 committee, who order him to do the work neces- 

 sary to make the roads passable. At the meeting 

 of the committee in the fall, (in October, I think,) 

 the different overseers hand in their bills, and re- 

 ceive an order on the township collector for the 

 amount. 



This mode I think is also objectionable. The roads 

 are often neglected for want of means to work them. 

 Some overseers, rather than call the committee, will 

 leave the roads unfinishe<l. Others, after the call 

 of the committee, will run their bills to an unrea- 



sonable length, for the sake of a "job." Again, by 

 this arrangement, the hands employed (generally in 

 May) must wait until December for their wages. 



Your mode of repairing roads, or rather your 

 mode of expending money for the repair of 

 roads in New York, I am unacquainted with. I 

 would submit it to your consideration, whether it 

 would not be better and more economical to adopt 

 a plan something like tliis: When the people meet 

 to transact their township business, elect their 

 officers, &c., let them ascertain how many miles of 

 road they have in the township, and then put out 

 the roads of the township by contract to the low- 

 est bidder, either by the mile or for the repairs of 

 all the roads in the township, the contractor giving 

 bonds and security for the faithful performance of 

 the contract, to be subject to the order and dicta- 

 tion of the town committee. Could we not by this 

 mode keep our roads in better repair, with less ex- 

 pense, than we do under our present arrangement ; 

 and the hands employed would then get their pay 

 as they do their work. w. h. snydee. 



Rosemcmt, New Jer»ey. 



TnE law places the supervision of the highwaya 

 in each town under one or three commissioners, aa 

 the towns shall elect, and who are to divide the 

 highways into convenient road districts, which dis- 

 tricts are placed under the charge of overseers, 

 one for each district. The commissioners levy an 

 annual labor tax on the taxable inhabitants of each 

 town, in addition to a poll tax of at least one day 

 on each white male citizen of 21 years of age. 

 This tax amounts to about half a day to one hun- 

 dred dollars of valuation of property, as assessed by 

 the town assessors. A warrant is made by the 

 commissioners to the overseers, directing them to 

 cause at least one-half of the labor assessed upon 

 their districts to be worked in June, and the bal- 

 ance when most needed by the highways, and to 

 make returns of what they have done in the prem- 

 ises, &c. 



Now let us take a look at our highways, and see 

 how this system is carried out. 



District No. 1, in a town, for instance, will turn 

 out, rain or shine, and expend their whole labor at 

 once in throwing up a narrow windrow of surface 

 soil to the height of three or four feet from the 

 original level, leaving deep ditches on each side, 

 while the windrow is so narrow and the sides so 

 steep that it is almost impossible for meeting teams 

 to pass each other without upsetting. Then, again, 

 there is no chance for making two or more wagon 

 tracks; but all must travel in the same track, 

 making, in wet weather, deep ruts in the unsuit- 

 able earth used for the so-called road. The excuse 

 for making this sort of road is, " to shed off the 

 water," when in fact it has exactly the contrary 

 effect, retaining it in the deep ruts. 



The overseer of District No. 2 sees the error, 88 

 he calls it, makes his road wider, and, in order to 

 turn off the water, makes, in every few rods, a 

 diagonal " mound," two or three feet high, acrosg 

 the road, with a ditch on the upper hiU side. This 

 plan is very vexatious to fast young men in gloves, 

 moustache, and trotting buggies, as "well as to 

 heavily loaded teams, giving the wagon a very dis- 

 agreeable double twist as it passes into and out of 

 the ditch and over the " mound ;" but it is better, 

 on the whole, than the plan of No. 1. 



