1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



367 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HIGHV7AYS. 



Mr. Brown : — Did you ever think that the 

 public roads through a town are a pretty good in- 

 dex by which you iiiay judge of the common sense 

 of the people ? I feel most sincerely that the pub- 

 lic sentiment is not right yet, fur from it, on the 

 subject of roads. In our own town, although we 

 raise one tliousand dollars — money tax — I believe 

 it would be economy to raise double that sum, 

 and then have it judiciously expended. Why 

 should we oblige our teams to drag loads through 

 beds of sand, that might be covered vv'ith road 

 gravel from a neighboring hill ? Let all such 

 places be covered and kept in good order, I say. 

 Then the muddy places ; what a scourge and vex- 

 ation they are in March ; and all capable of being 

 put in good condition, if coarse gravel be put on 

 early in the spring before the ground settles. 



How does it affect you to ride over the same 

 cobble stones day after day, and month after 

 month, lying in the ruts ? I cannot help complain- 

 ing and wondering why the surveyors don't take 

 their garden rakes and pass over the roads and 

 clean them from such annoyances. Shouldn't you 

 sup})ose that an intelligent surveyor would walk 

 behind his cart while going over his district, and 

 clear out every stone ? I can assure you that it is 

 PxOt a universal practice yet. 



The highways may be in a bad condition, even 

 when a large sum is expended upon them. The 

 rains that we have so frequently, do a great deal 

 of damage. The water in our district generally 

 runs in the middle of the road. It is not shecked 

 and turned out at the sides by bars, but follows 

 the wheel track from the highest hill to the lowest 

 hollow's. I confess that my patience is sorely tried 

 by such neglect. I know that if our roads were 

 all properly crowned, most of the water that falls 

 would be turned off. But the I'oads cannot be all 

 shaped up for several years, and for the present, 

 it is wise to open frequent water-courses at the 

 sides of the walls, and build, quite across the 

 ways, bars, to stop the water. I know that bars 

 across the road are disliked by many. They ought 

 never to be made so as seriously to jolt a carriage, 

 A good model is a tortoises back ; the wheels 

 should rise gradually ; more good gravel should 

 be used, and the "bar"' be longer. 



I will tell you, Mr. Brown, just what I think 

 we should have done on our I'oads. They should 

 be repaired early in the season, with the best of 

 road gravel, and not with sand, sods, garden 

 loam and cobble stones. The water should b 

 kept off, and not allowed, as it is now, to run in 

 so many places, a good quarter of a mile. The 

 loose stones should be cleaned off, at least once a 

 month, by a competent person. May I expect 

 that you will say. Amen ! 



Yours truly, w. D. B. 



Remarks. — Certainly, we do. Few persons un- 

 derstand road-making — merely because they have 

 not given attention to it, as a science ; for road 

 making is a scientific work. We passed over a 

 piece of road this morning in going from our 

 dwelling to the station, less than fifty rods in 

 length, which we believe has had enough expend- 

 ed upon it during the last ten years, to pave it 



thoroughly with stone or iron — and yet it is a 

 miserable piece of road, the mud being two or 

 three inches deep and the wheels continually 

 striking the stones under it. To make this piece 

 of road nearly perfect, does not require a stone or 

 a load of gravel, but simply a little judicious 

 drainage. But road-making is held something as 

 farming is ; most persons who have ever seen a 

 road, think they know all about making one. 



OUR CHAM-QING CLIMATE. 



The frequent changes of our uncertain climate 

 give rise to many forms of disease, and we often 

 murmur and repine at their suddenness. But there 

 is a bright, as well as a dark side in all the ordi- 

 nances of nature, and Washington L-ving has 

 painted the bright side of the fickle season in the 

 following glowing terms : 



"Here let me say a word in favor of those vicis- 

 situdes of cur climate which are too often made 

 the subject of exclusive repining. If Ihey annoy 

 us, they give us one of the most beautiful climates 

 in the world. They give us the brilliant sunshine 

 of the south of Europe, with the fresh verdure of 

 the north. They float our summer sky with gor- 

 geous tints of fleecy whiteness, and send down 

 cooling showers to refresh the panting earth, and 

 keep it green. Our seasons are full of sublimity 

 and beauty. Winter with us hath none of its pro- 

 verbial gloom. It may have its howling winds 

 and chilling frosts, and whirling snow storm.s, but 

 it has also its long intervals of cloudless sunshine 

 when the snow-clad earth gives redoubled bright- 

 ness to the day, Avhen at night the stars beam 

 with intensest lustre, or the moon floods the 

 whole landscape with her most limpid radiance. 



And the joyous outbreak of our spring, bursting 

 at once into leaf and blossom, redundant with 

 vegetation, and vociferous with life ; and the 

 splendor of summer, its morning voluptuousness 

 and evening glory, its airy places of sun-lit clouds 

 piled up in a deep azure sky ; and its gusts of 

 tcm.pest of almost tropical grandeur, when the 

 forked lightning and bellowing thunder volley 

 fromthe battlements of heaven and shake the sultry 

 atmosphere ; and the sublime melancholy of our 

 autumn, magnificent in its decay, withering down 

 the pomp of the woodland country, yet reflecting 

 back from its yellow forests the golden serenity 

 of the sky. Truly we may well say that in our 

 climate, "The heavens declare the glory of God, 

 and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day 

 unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 

 showeth knowledge." 



Ca>\\.dian Agriculture. — The Canadian Ag- 

 gricidtmist represents the Fifteenth Exhibition 

 of the Agricultural Association of Upper Canada, 

 held at Hamilton, last month, as the most suc- 

 cessful which has yet taken place in the Province. 



We judge by the fact that twenty-four pages of 

 the Fccrmers' Journal are devoted to the award 

 of premiums at the Exhibition of the Agricultu- 

 ral Association of Lower Canada, that its late fair 

 at Quebec Avas equally successful. 



