AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 95 



upon this axiom in Europe, but we as a people liavc not. It is 

 there demonstrated that tliorough culture, cleanness, method, 

 system, an accurate knowledge of the wants of plants, and close 

 adaptation to those wants, are the conditions of success, wiiilst 

 the absence of these qualities is sure to result in entire failure 

 or great comparative loss. 



This thoroughness applies to everything ; but to an Americaa 

 is, perhaps, more striking in the perfection of roads, whether 

 highways or railways, culverts, bridges and tunnels, as well as 

 masonry and engineering of all kinds. You know to how great 

 an extent facility of communication is of benefit to the farmer. 

 You recognize the value of railways, and see how they raise 

 the value of land ; you know you like a good highway better 

 than a poor one, but have not been brought to reflect how much 

 economy there is in a good road in other respects than mere 

 facility of transit. It is demonstrated in Europe what the sav- 

 ing is in horses, in carriages, in time, in the increased amount 

 of travel, and, what is more remarkable, that there is saving in 

 the cost of the road itself. A good road, thoroughly built and 

 constantly watched, is cheaper in a series of years than a poorly 

 constructed road, repaired by fits and starts, or once or twice a 

 year ; just as you already know that a good carriage or locomo- 

 tive to run upon a road, constantly watched, is the cheapest in 

 the end. "What would you think of roads with never a rut, 

 smoother than the sidewalks of your town, rising to points more 

 than 3,500 feet above tlie level of the sea, cut through rocky 

 promontories, bridged over dry valleys and tumbling waterfalls, 

 rising and falling on even grades or pitches for miles, swept 

 every day, watclied as carefully as the road-builders search our 

 railways, tended as a mother tends her child ! Yet we have 

 such roads in all Europe, and many of them where the country 

 is not so populous nor so rich as we are. If there is a county 

 commissioner here, or a man who expects to be ; if there is in 

 this hall a town surveyor, or contractor, or one who hopes to 

 be, I tell him, as a citizen, that it is his first duty as a citizen to 

 stop this waste ; to read and study the essays on road-building 

 in the last State agricultural report ; to make himself master of 

 the experience of otliers who have investigated tliis subject, and 

 tlius learn how little he knows, which is the first great step 

 gained in learning everything. 



