236 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



To obviate these inconveniences, it would be necessary 

 that each municipal council should prepare a statement of 

 all the neighboring roads, and of all the improvements vi'hich 

 they require ; this statement should be submitted to the sub- 

 prefect, vi^ho should send it to the mayor, with his opinion 

 thereon ; the expense should be assessed upon the proprie- 

 tors at so much per franc of their land-tax in the parish. 



If it is difficult to induce the proprietors of a single par- 

 ish to contribute to the maintenance of their farming roads, 

 it is much more so to bring two parishes to unite in the 

 repairs of their district roads. The rivalry often existing 

 between them, the greater or less interest which they have 

 in the use of the r^ad, are obstacles in the way of the com- 

 mon good. 



It is here that the authorities should interpose. Already, 

 almost everywhere, the district roads have been usurped by 

 the neighboring proprietors, and it is not by means of the 

 local authorities that a redress of these grievances can be 

 hoped for ; for the members of the municipal councils and 

 of the municipalities, themselves the largest proprietors in 

 the parishes, are the first usurpers. 



I would have attached to every department a superintend- 

 ent of bridges and highways, whose duties should be confin- 

 ed to whatever relates to the district roads. A stranger to 

 all local interests, he should prepare a plan of the district 

 roads, should reduce within the limits of their own estates 

 those who have encroached upon the public road, should 

 prescribe the necessary repairs, point out the nature of the 

 materials to be employed, and direct all the labor ; and all 

 his plans should be put in execution, aft;er having been sub- 

 mitted to the engineers of the arrondissement, and approved 

 by the chief engineer. 



. The parishes interested should pay the expenses by an 

 assessment upon their revenue, their additional centimes, 

 and partly by a payment in kind, with the approbation of 

 the prefect. 



The departmental roads, which form communications be- 

 tween the principal town^^of a department, are of more gen- 

 eral use and interest than those of which we have just been 

 speaking ; these should be maintained at the expense of the 

 department itself; and the general council, to which funds 

 are entrusted for this object, should make it one of its prin- 

 cipal subjects of deliberation. 



The great roads, which traverse all the departments, 



