246 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



fertile island of the Atlantic — are still of the most wretched 

 description. Barbaric Spain has not yet learned what Rome 

 knew one thousand years ago, what America well knows 

 to-day, — that roads are the arteries of commerce, along 

 which flow the life streams of a nation, bearing success, 

 civilization and contentment to the inhabitants. 



One of the first principles of better roads is good drainage. 

 Take the water out, and keep it out, is a rule which must be 

 followed in the making of every road. We have to-day in 

 some of the rural towns roads that are the lowest in the 

 centre, and which are nearly impassable after every heavy 

 rain. These roads must be rounded up in the centre, so as 

 to shed the water quickly to the side drains. These drains 

 must have a good fall to a clear outlet, and be in every re- 

 spect capable of carrying oif the water. Ruts and holes 

 must not be permitted to form, but must be filled up as soon 

 as they appear. No one thing at so small expense can be 

 done to our roads for their improvement as drainage. 



In some of the towns of the State the roads are in worse 

 condition to-day than they were twenty-five years ago. In 

 that time smart, hustling manufacturing villages have sprung 

 up. Consequently, all the money that could be raised in a 

 town was used in developing the village streets and side- 

 walks, leaving the outlying districts with hardly a cent for 

 their roads, although during this time, the taxes may have 

 nearly doubled in amount. 



The time is past and gone for the continuation of the dirt 

 roads, — one of the most expensive methods ever used in the 

 construction of good roads. In many of our outlying dis- 

 tricts there is an abundance of stone that should be used for 

 making permanent roads. By the use of this stone there 

 would be at the same time an improvement of the farms, b^' 

 getting rid of what had only been a detriment to them. 

 Upon almost every farm, in some localities in the State, may 

 be found thousands of loads of stone, heaped up in corners 

 of the fields, which have been accumulating for years, which 

 should be used in making the best roads under the sun. 

 Also, on many of the roadsides stone has been accumulating 

 for years, as they have been raked from the road and left 

 there, — a blot and disgrace to roadside improvement. 



