AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
For the Farm, Garden, and Household. 
"AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL. AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. ”—Washington' 
Volume XL.— No. 11. NEW YORK, NOVEMBER, 1881. New Series—No. 418. 
Our readers are here treated to a scene on 
which, or the like of which, they must have 
looked many a time. Mr. A. M. Fuller, a mer¬ 
chant of Meadville, Pa., a gentleman of true 
public spirit, in his travels about his own 
region, as he looked after his large dairy in¬ 
terests, felt the evil of the ways he travelled, 
and saw some cause of its continuance. At his 
instance, A. G. Richmond, Esq., a young law¬ 
yer of his town, painted the above picture on 
canvas, and Prof. A. B. Hyde, of Alleghany 
College, kindly sent us a photograph from 
which this is engraved. It is no fancy sketch. 
The locality can be identified and the men are 
fairly average citizens, only a little “muci- 
lated”to make identity obscure.—The first 
sketch contained a colt, which aggravated 
the case by being always in the way, and by 
its dam needing frequent rest for his benefit. 
The earnest old man, and the tall boy at the 
scraper are stated to be from Vermont; the 
rest are “Pennamites.” This picture is not a 
caricature; it is a simple holding of the 
mirror up to nature. Study it. Prof. Hyde 
writes : “How we proceed here, is about as 
follows. The farmers of the district are 
notified to appear at a certain date for duty. 
One or two teams and a dozen men gather 
to the portion of the road to be repaired. 
As the Road District is a simple unit of 
Democracy, each man is as good as a “ boss,” 
and is mostly exempt from labor; the boys 
flourish the spade and hoe, but the horses 
are the laboring class. As for our “earth¬ 
works,” the deep, narrow side ditches are cut 
still deeper; the large stones and small 
boulders along the footpaths are rolled into 
the center of the track, and the finish given 
with a top-dressing of sod. Logs, rails, etc., 
are then laid on the flahks to compel travel 
on the center. Should the process be inter¬ 
rupted (which often happens), the road is 
left variegated with piles of dirt which some¬ 
times lie unspread for the season, reminding 
the traveller “rolling through an unfriendly 
world,” that something has been done to¬ 
wards improvement? Probably we can all 
see that this is a good way not to do it.... Is 
there not a better way ? A few citizens, our 
best farmers, are proposing to use the same 
good and strong sense on the roads as they 
use on a farm, A letter from the original 
McAdam, to a farmer in Central New York, 
was long kept, in which he says : “ Remem¬ 
ber that in your region, if you keep stones 
out and water off, you have a road.” Simple 
advice, yet needing wit to follow it! Two 
ideas are growing in the minds of our people, 
both tending to reform. One is to find the 
man who has plain engineering wit, adequate 
Copyright, 1831, by Orange Judd Company 
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as Second Class Matter. 
