52 BOARD OF xVGRICULTURE. 



time to timo been picked from the surface and thrown aside to 

 he an eyesore to every man of taste who travels there, consti- 

 tute an infinitely better road material than the soil on which 

 they lie. Sods and turf are often deceptively tough, and they 

 seem " so handy " to fill a hole or a rut that they are used for 

 the purpose without considering that they rapidly decay and 

 •work down into soft mud. But some go to the other extreme 

 and fill up the deep ruts with stones put in and covered up in 

 such a way as to conceal them at first, but so that they never 

 wear uniformly with the rest of the road, but appear in hard 

 ridges and bumps. 



And here I must condemn the promiscuous use of the plough 

 and the scraper in repairing roads. Common as they are, they 

 should never be used in crowning up a road from the sides, and 

 perhaps the only place where they should ever be tolerated on 

 the road is in loosening and removing the tops of hills to reduce 

 the grade by taking off the gravel, for their work, though large 

 in quantity, is very poor in quality and in fact, destructive to 

 the condition of the road, for the one breaks up the surface and 

 tlie shoulders of the road which time and travel may have 

 solidified, while the scraper drags up from the side ditches the 

 soft alluvial matter previously washed into them, and leaves it 

 upon the road, the very place of all others where it is never 

 wanted and never should be allowed. 



You will find on inquiry that the most common reason given 

 as to why this vegetable matter is used is, that there is no suit- 

 able material handy. In some cases, like sandy locations and 

 where long stretches of country occur, destitute of rocks and 

 gravel, there is, no doubt, some shadow of reason in this ex- 

 cuse ; but I have often heard it where plenty of good gravel 

 could be had, within a hundred rods, almost for the carting. 

 And how easy it would be in most sections to remedy the diffi- 

 culty by employing men by the year, to be always on hand to 

 keep up the roads and to keep an abundance of material, 

 crushed rocks, screened gravel, <fcc , on hand for use in various 

 parts of the town. With but little if any greater expense than 

 at present, with a more efficient and economical system, there 

 need be no complaint of a want of material, certainly not in 

 this part of the State. If there is a town within twenty miles 

 of here that has not plenty of good road material, I should be 



