330 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
weeks there was .1 huge gully there, and dirt 
enough at the bottom of t lie hill to cost $50 to 
replace it. One dollar spent at first, in using 
plow and hoe, would have prevented all this 
waste. The supervisor of that district fairly 
owed Ihe traveling public or the county treas- 
ury $40. " A stitch in time saves nine." It is 
his business to take the stitch. 
Rule 3d.— Dig out all stones that stick iip in 
the track. Of course throw out all loose ones. 
"It's surprisin'," said my shrewd old neighbor 
before mentioned, "how much enssin' a few 
small stuns in the track will cause. Th' use 
t'he an ugly one stickin' up front of my house, 
and it spoilt my front porch for noonin's. You 
see, I found the swearin' done over that stun 
wascorruptin' my morals, say notion' of spoilin' 
my noonin' naps. So I dug the thing up, and 
since then the teamsters have been more pious 
in front of my house. I b'lieve I stopped more 
swearin' than the parson could by preachin' 
on the hull ten commandments." Nothing tries 
the temper of a driver and the stuff of his wag- 
on worse than stones in the wheel-track, and 
loose stones often seriously lame a horse. A 
supervisor can not do a better deed than to 
clear them all out of the road. 
Rule iih. — Clean and fill all miid-Jwles, as a 
dentist would a tooth, so they will stay filled. 
It does no good to pile in dirt while they are 
full of mud and water. That merely enlarges 
the hole and makes it muddier. A few such 
"fallings" will spread it clear across the road. 
The water should he drained or dipped off, and 
the hole filled and rounded up so the dirt can 
not settle there again. If it is deep, small stones 
picked out of the track may he filled in at the 
bottom, if they are then well covered with 
gravel or dirt, 
When a supervisor has observed these four 
rules and acted on them, his roads will be in a 
passable condition, and not liable to bo render- 
ed impassable by the first heavy rain. He can 
then use the rest of his funds in turnpiking and 
in improving the appearance of the highways. 
How They Make Roads in Quiddletown. 
BY ONE WHO HAS BEEN THERE. 
Mb. Editor: I don't want you to flatter 
yourself that you are doing such a mighty 
sight of good by your paper. It is all very well 
for you to tell folks how to do all sorts of things, 
and then, for fear the}' won't know what you 
mean, to rub it in with pictures. Your new- 
fangled notions may be good enough, and your 
pictures are awful taking; but you don't know 
every thing, of if you do, you can't teach it to 
the Q liddletown folks — you can't teach them 
an}' thing, they learned it all from their fathers. 
To say nothing about high fanning, and sav- 
ing manure, and soiling, and all that, just take 
the matter of making roads for an example. 
Now, you think you know something about 
making country roads, don't you? Well, may 
be you do, but if you do the Qniddletown folks 
don't, and what they don't know a'n't worth 
knowing— as any one of them will tell you. 
I don't know much about such things myself, 
but I am going to tell you how thsy do it, and if 
you get my " illustrations" up in good style, 
I'll bet that a dozen people will follow this plan 
to one that will follow yours. 
In the first place, Qniddletown is an old town, 
and they don't make any new roads; they only 
make the old ones over, and this is how they 
do it. Figure 1 is what you call a cross-section 
of a road, as it looks after corn-planting time. 
The black part is top soil and sods; the light 
part is blue clay, and Ihe lumps are stones. 
Figure 2 is the way the road look= after they 
have "made" it. In a little while, as the sea- 
son is dry, it gets to look like fig. 3, where the 
spoiled part shows the dust. It keeps this way 
I suppose they know best — they say they do. 
Another funny thing is the way they man- 
age when two road districts join. They say 
every district must take care of its own water; 
so instead of turning the gutter down alongside 
of the road where they branch, they make the 
Fig. 1. — THE WAY THE ROAD IS AFTER CORN-PLANTING. 
other people keep the stream in their own dis- 
trict, and every man of them has to drive 
through the mud or over the ice every time he 
goes to town. The other people don't care— 
they don't go that way. 
most of the summer; except for a rain now and 
then, but in the fall it gets pretty bad, as in fig. 
4. Then the committee gets mad and puts on 
some stone, like fig. 5, with sods on top of them, 
so as to make the road hard in the middle any 
Fig. 2. — TnE ROAD "MADE" — ALL THE SURFACE SOIL OF THE GUTTERS BEING PILED ON IT. 
how. It makes it so hard that folks drive at 
the sides all winter, when the road looks as in 
fig. G. It is only in the spring, when the frost 
is coming out, that they go on the stones, be- 
cause they can't help themselves, and this is 
just enough to make it look like fig. 1, again. 
Swamp Muck. 
No farmer who has a supply of this valuable 
material, should permit the opportunities pre- 
sented during this month, to pass away without 
digging out a supply, to be hauled during the 
Fig. 3.— DUSTY TIMES, ALONG IN JU»Y. 
Then they appoint a new committee, and they 
go over the same course again, only they pick 
off some of the stones to make the road smooth 
for summer. They have to put them back 
airain in the fall though. 
winter. After this month has passed away, the 
fall rains may be expected, which will flood all 
the low grounds, and prevent digging, or make 
it so uncomfortable that any excuse will be 
found to avoid it. No more valuable addition 
Fig. 4.— MUD AND SLUSH— ALL AFLOAT. 
Now this is most pictures enough for one let- 
ter, but I would like to show you how they 
manage a springy place in the spring of the 
year. They don't make a drain and tap the 
spring, the way you tell them to ; they just put 
to the manure heap can be procured, and* sup- 
ply that will last all winter, to absorb all liquid 
waste from stahles,cow-houses, kitchen.and hog- 
pens, and keep hen-roosts well provided, should 
be procured without fail. Next spring no money 
wmm. 
-THE MUD CURED BY A RIDGE OF STONE AND SOD IN THE MIDDLE. 
on some loads of slofles, and smooth them off 
with earth on top. It looks first-rate when it 
is new, and they do say it is the best plan, hut 
I wish you could see what a mess it is when 
the ground a'n't got no bottom to it. It is just 
can in many cases procure the supply of ma- 
nure that may thus be made with only the ex 
penditure of some days' labor now. Whenever 
we hear or read of the successful bringing up 
of a run-down farm, we invariablv come across 
Fig. 0. 
-WINTER WEATHER ROADS. 
like driving over a rotten corduroy in a swamp, 
and if it wasn't for those spots they could carry 
twice the load they do. Seems to me if water 
makes the trouble, they had ought to put in a 
drain and keep the water out of the way; but 
this fact, viz. : " He hauled some swamp muck." 
Now, whatever chemists may say about the 
composition of this or that material, we farmers 
know that we must have a certain amount of 
bulk in our manure. The soil needs the median- 
