46 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN HOMES. 



From an Address before the Franklin Agricultural Society. 



BY J. F. MOORS. 



One of the most obvious instances of the superiority of the 

 Old World over us, is in the character of the common roads. 

 The poorest road I saw in Europe is vastly better than the 

 best road there is in this region. Macadamized roads are well- 

 nigh universal. The road-bed is dug out two or three feet, 

 according to the nature of the soil, and filled with loose stones 

 that will allow complete drainage ; over these a heavy layer of 

 small stones, not any so large as a hen's egg, broken up for this 

 purpose, is spread. These soon form into a compact mass of 

 stone under the pressure of the wheels, thus forming a natural 

 mosaic, impervious to the rain, uninfluenced by frost, as smooth 

 as the floor, as hard as iron. It is never muddy, seldom dusty. 

 I think one horse would do the labor on a common road in Eng- 

 land or France or Germany or Italy, which it would require two 

 horses to do in our country. The bridges of hammered stone, 

 are marvels of art and of strength. Such roads, such bridges, 

 are out of our reach as yet. We have not the wealth to build 

 them. They are the product of hundreds of years of labor. 

 It is not two hundred years since this was a wilderness. 



In comparison between the Old World and this, we must al- 

 ways take into account the exceeding cheapness and abundance 

 of labor al)road. Labor is the one thing that does not have to 

 be economized. Human labor, I mean. In every country in 

 Europe, an immense amount of labor is done by men and wo- 

 men, that in this country would be done by machinery, or by 

 oxen and horses. The farther east and south you go, where the 

 climate is warm, and as a consequence the population more 



