68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the water do. They have their little piles of rubble on the side 

 of the road, with the highway surveyor constantly on the watch, 

 and any defect is immediately repaired, on the principle that " a 

 stitch in time saves nine." It costs but a mere trifle, and the 

 road is kept in perfect condition. It is true, there are but few 

 towns in the State that could afford to construct a road like that, 

 and there are few places where such a road would be wanted, — 

 eighty feet wide and perfectly graded ; but there are many streets 

 that could be graded in that way. It is true that it would be 

 expensive, and the objection is that towns could not afford it. 

 Now, the motto which I adopted many years ago, and which I 

 still believe in, was, " what is worth doing, is worth doing well." 

 If you cannot make but a mile of road this year, make that mile. 

 I can remember when the whole appropriation in the town of 

 Newton for roads was but a very few thousand dollars ; it was 

 thirty-five thousand last year ; and I was told the other day 

 that they proposed to recommend fifty thousand dollars for the 

 next year. I hope they will recommend tiiat sum, and we 

 shall begin to have pretty good roads. Let us have just such 

 roads as are needed in the particular locality ; if we need an 

 eighty foot road, costing $G,000 a mile, let us build that. 



And now I ask, right here, what has made Dorchester, Brook- 

 line, West Roxbury, Somerville, Waltham and Newton, so 

 popular as they are ? I will not speak for the other towns, but 

 I will speak for Newton, though it may seem egotistic ; but I 

 speak as I think. I say that one of the causes which have 

 tended to l)uild up that town and make it popular is its; excel- 

 lent roads. I go still further ; I say, if we do not maintain 

 good roads, we cannot keep the wealth and population there. 

 It was my misfortune to be sixteen years on the board of select- 

 men. The last few years, no matter how busy I was, I could 

 not allow a loose stone upon the surface a week without being 

 called upon to pick it off. I visited, not long ago, one of the 

 thriving towns of New Hampshire, where they ouglit to know 

 better, and do, and I will undertake to say that they have not 

 picked a stone out of their streets for the last ten years. It 

 was actually unsafe to drive a horse through the streets ; and 

 yet they take summer boarders, and charge them good round 

 prices, too. These are the two extremes. I say no town can 

 afford to have poor roads, for the reasons I have given ; and I 



