3i6 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
May  14 
it  unpopular  among  seed-growers.  A  certain  leading 
firm  of  seedsmen  was  obliged  last  season  to  announce 
“  Seed  failed  to  ripen,”  in  its  price-list,  although  the 
variety  had  been  described  in  the  body  of  the  cata¬ 
logue  in  the  usual  favorable  terms.  This  season  its 
mention  has  been  dropped  entirely  from  the  cata¬ 
logue.  Its  manifest  superiority  as  a  table  corn  has 
been  directly  the  cause  of  its  downfall. 
I  feel  assured  that  S.  M.  will  gain  nothing  by  his 
proposed  crossing  upon  existing  varieties.  If  any  one 
can  tell  me  of  a  kind  intermediate  in  season  between 
the  Crosby  and  Squantum,  and  of  equal  quality,  I 
would  be  pleased  to  try  it  here  in  Worcester  County, 
Mass.,  this  season.  I  intend  to  cross  these  varieties 
with  this  aim  in  view.  frep  w.  proctor. 
Country  Roads  and  Road  Making. 
F.  HODGMAN. 
Read  before  the  Calhoun  County  Farmers-  Institute  at  Battle  Creek, 
Michigan. 
In  most  matters  of  public  concern,  the  interests  of 
the  individual  are  made  subordinate  to  those  of  the 
general  public.  In  the  location  of  common  highways, 
the  reverse  is  very  commonly  the  case.  When  the  ques¬ 
tion  is  to  be  decided  whether  a  road  shall  be  located 
along  the  boundary  line  of  a  man’s  farm  ;  or  whether 
to  shorten  the  distance,  or  to  avoid  steep  hills,  rough 
ground,  and  expensive  grading,  it  shall  “  angle  ” 
through  the  farm,  the  individual  interest  nearly  always 
prevails  over  the  public  interest.  It  is  considered  more 
important  that  the  man  shall  have  square  fields  than 
that  the  public  shall  have  the  cheapest  and  best  loca¬ 
tion  for  the  road.  To  make  sure  that  the  man  shall  be 
able  to  turn  square  corners  with  his  plow,  the  public 
will  have  to  incur  more  expense  grading  down  hills 
and  filling  hollows,  and  will  have  to  spend  more  time 
in  going  around  the  corners  than  it  would  take  if 
turned  into  money  at  the  ordinary  wages  for  men  and 
teams,  to  buy  the  man’s  farm  outright.  In  this  paper 
I  shall  assume  that  it  is  desirable  to  have  this  state  of 
things  continued  ;  that  the  public  do  not  want  the  best 
location  for  a  road  when  it  is  necessary  to  run  angling 
across  a  man’s  farm  to  get  it.  I  shall  also  assume 
that,  outside  of  the  cities  and  villages,  it  is  not  desired 
to  have  good  roads  made  and  kept  in  order  in  the  best 
and  most  economical  way  ;  that  country  people  are  not 
willing  to  pay  cash  to  have  their  roads  constructed 
under  the  superintendence  of  men  who  understand  the 
business ;  that  the  most  desirable  way  to  pay  our 
highway  tax  is  to  have  teams  and  wagons  standing 
idle,  and  plows,  scrapers,  shovels,  picks  and  hoes  lying 
around  in  the  road,  all  putting  in  time,  while  tli3  men 
sit  in  the  shade  telling  stories  and  smoking.  I  do  not 
believe  all  these  assumptions  are  true,  especially  the 
last  one  about  working  on  the  road,  and  yet  there  is 
some  virtue  in  it.  If  no  good  is  done  to  the  road,  at 
least  not  so  much  harm  is  done  as  might  be  under  the 
circumstances. 
The  first  essential  for  a  main  road  between  important 
points  is  a  good  location.  The  distance  should  be  the 
shortest  consistent  with  the  easiest  grades  and  the 
lightest  work  in  construction.  The  location  of  a  main 
wagon  road  is  governed  by  precisely  the  same  princi¬ 
ples  that  govern  the  location  of  a  railroad,  and  the 
same  care  should  be  used  in  making  it.  When  a  road 
is  located  in  this  way  and  the  line  crosses  a  man’s 
farm  in  such  a  way  that  the  corn  rows  will  not  come 
out  even,  it  is  quite  common  to  reject  the  location. 
The  second  essential  for  a  good  road  is  a  smooth, 
even  surface,  hard  enough  so  that  wheels  will  not  cut 
into  it,  and  soft  enough  so  that  the  feet  of  animals 
will  take  a  secure  hold  on  it  and  not  slip  when  hauling 
loads.  For  the  ease  and  comfort  of  men  and  animals 
and  durability  of  vehicles  it  should  also  be  to  some 
extent  elastic.  In  many  respects  asphalt  pavement  is 
the  ideal  road.  It  has  the  drawback  of  becoming 
very  smooth  and  slippery  and  thus  endangering  the 
lives  and  limbs  of  animals  by  falling.  Pavements  of 
any  kind  are  not  likely  to  become  common  on  the 
country  roads.  When  there  are  enough  travel  and 
permanent  traffic  along  an  extended  highway,  to  war¬ 
rant  paving,  they  will  also  warrant  the  building  of  a 
railroad,  which  is  pretty  sure  to  come  sooner  or  later. 
There  are  places  here  and  there  in  our  country  roads 
that  it  will  pay  to  pave  because  it  is  the  easiest  and 
cheapest  way  to  make  permanently  good  roads  of 
them.  For  this  purpose  it  is  claimed  by  those  in  a 
position  to  know,  that,  in  proportion  to  its  cost,  there 
is  nothing  so  good  as  brick.  It  costs  but  little  if  any¬ 
more  than  wooden  blocks,  never  decays  like  wood,  and 
outwears  the  latter  many  times  over.  Brick  pave¬ 
ments  are  not  rough,  pounding  wagons  to  pieces  and 
wearing  out  people’s  ears  with  the  racket,  nor  do  they 
become  slippery  like  granite  and  asphalt.  The  com¬ 
mon  house  brick  is  not  good  for  pavements.  Paving 
bricks  are  made  of  clay  which  will  stand  great  heat 
without  vitrifying  and  are  burned  very  hard.  They 
must  be  as  uniform  in  quality  as  possible.  A  soft 
brick  in  a  pavement  will  cause  a  hole,  just  as  a  rotten 
block  will  cause  a  hole  in  a  wooden  pavement.  So  far 
as  I  have  learned,  nearly  all  the  failures  in  brick 
pavements  have  been  caused  by  soft  bricks.  Bricks 
are  extensively  used  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Iowa, 
and  are  rapidly  gaining  in  popularity. 
A  good  pavement  may  be  made  of  brick  by  laying 
one  course  flatwise  on  the  surface  of  the  graded  road¬ 
bed,  and  a  second  course  on  edge  herring-bone  pattern. 
Any  space  between  should  be  thoroughly  filled  with 
sand.  If  the  pavement  is  to  wear  smooth  and  even, 
the  road-bed  must  be  worked  to  an  even  surface  and 
be  of  uniform  consistency, — all  equally  hard  through¬ 
out.  It  will  not  do  to  dump  down  dirt  from  a  scoop 
scraper  and  then  harrow  the  surface  to  smooth  it. 
There  will  be  a  hummock  wherever  a  scoop  load  was 
dumped,  with  hollows  between.  A  scoop  scraper  is  a 
nuisance  on  road  work.  A  flat  tongue-scraper  is  a 
great  deal  better.  Good  work  can  be  done  with  it. 
So  much  for  pavements.  We  will  assume  that  a  road 
has  been  located  and  that  it  passes  over  soils  of  vary¬ 
ing  quality,  sand,  loam,  clay  and  deep  muck.  It  is 
self-evident  that  the  same  treatment  will  not  apply  on 
all  these  different  soils.  First  clear  out  the  trees  and 
brush,  if  there  are  any  in  the  roadway,  and  take  out 
the  stumps  as  soon  as  it  will  pay  to  do  it.  Do  the  same 
with  rocks  and  stones,  if  there  are  any.  Take  off  the 
tops  of  the  hummocks  and  fill  the  holes.  The  clay 
and  muck  must  be  thoroughly  drained  till  every  drop 
of  surplus  water  that  comes  will  be  quickly  carried 
away.  Water  is  the  worst  enemy  the  roadmaster  has 
to  contend  with  on  such  soils.  Do  not  be  afraid  of 
going  outside  the  road  to  open  a  channel  (with  the 
land  owner’s  permission)  if  it  is  necessary  to  do  so  to 
get  rid  of  the.  water.  You  can  often  improve  the  road 
more  by  cleaning  out  and  opening  water-courses  at 
some  distance  from  it  than  by  work  on  the  road  itself. 
You  never  will  have  a  good  road  till  the  water  is  dis¬ 
posed  of.  The  same  is  true  of  quicksand,  but  not  of 
other  kinds  of  sand.  The  presence  of  water  in  the 
latter  is  an  improvement  for  road  purposes  and  should 
be  encouraged. 
In  heavy  clay  soils,  tile  drains  along  the  road  have 
been  found  of  great  advantage.  They  must  have  a 
free  outlet.  They  must  not  be  laid  directly  under  the 
track.  The  surface  becomes  puddled  and  prevents  the 
water  from  reaching  the  tiles.  Lay  a  row  of  tiles  on 
each  side  with  the  track  between.  Put  them  down 
from  two  to  four  feet  to  suit  the  grade  of  the  tile,  which 
must  be  true  without  any  sags,  depressions  or  eleva- 
t'ons-  (To  be  continued.) 
Sound  Hints  for  the  Hired  Man. 
The  great  primary  cause  of  discontent  on  the  part 
of  the  average  hired  man  is  his  not  understanding  that 
he  cannot  get  something  for  nothing.  No  one  wants 
to  do  business  at  a  loss,  but  that  is  what  lots  of  the 
laborers  want  the  farmers  to  do.  Suppose  I  hire  out 
for  $20  per  month  and  found.  Then  suppose  I  say  to 
myself,  I  will  do  $25  worth  of  work  each  month,  and 
no  more.  Now  can  the  farmer  afford  to  keep  me 
around?  Let  us  look  at  the  matter  carefully  and  see  ? 
He  pays  me  $20  in  cash  and  my  board  which  probably 
costs  him,  if  he  counts  everything,  $10  per  month. 
Then  count  in  what  I  break  and  otherwise  destroy, 
and  that  is  no  small  item  for  the  most  of  us.  So  we 
find  that  I  must  earn  my  employer  at  least  $35  per 
month  to  make  up  for  his  cash  outlay.  But  no  one 
wants  to  do  business  for  nothing.  So  he  cannot  afford 
to  keep  me  around  unless  I  earn  enough  more  to  give 
him  some  profit  besides  paying  interest  on  the  increased 
amount  of  stock  and  tools  which  he  has  to  keep,  to 
keep  me  employed.  Now  if  I  say  I  will  just  earn  what 
I  get  and  no  more,  the  farmer  cannot  afford  to  keep 
me.  He  may  have  to  do  so,  however,  to  keep  from 
losing  more  than  he  loses  on  me,  by  not  getting  his 
crops  in. 
If  the  hired  man  could  be  brought  to  see  it  in  this 
light,  and  would  try  to  earn  all  or  more  than  he  costs, 
it  would  be  money  in  his  pocket  as  well  as  in  the 
farmer’s  ;  for  the  only  way  to  get  higher  wages  is  to 
earn  them.  If  I  work  for  $40  per  month  and  earn  $60, 
some  neighbor  will  want  me  next  year.  So  there  will 
be  a  competition  for  my  services,  and  thus  I  will  get 
more  pay.  But  if  I  merely  earn  just  what  I  get,  I  cannot 
make  my  employer  believe  that  he  ought  to  pay  more. 
If  I  say  I  can  do  more,  he  will  say,  Why  don’t  you  do 
so  now  ?  If  we  -want  our  employers  to  look  after  our 
interests,  we  must  look  after  theirs.  The  man  who 
always  puts  a  rail  back  on  the  fence  when  he  sees  one 
off  and  who  never  forgets  to  shut  the  gate  after  him  is 
on  the  road  to  success.  When  in  doubt  as  to  what 
course  to  pursue,  take  the  one  that  seems  to  be  most 
for  your  employer’s  benefit.  Then  he  will  soon  trust 
j^ou  to  do  things  that  he  would  not  let  the  careless 
man  attempt.  Every  increase  of  wages  means  in¬ 
creased  responsibility  ;  so  do  not  hesitate  to  take  re¬ 
sponsibility  upon  yourself  if  you  want  more  pay. 
Another  way  to  succeed  is  to  specialize.  That  may 
seem  to  be  queer  advice  to  give  a  man  who  is  compelled 
to  work  at  as  many  different  kinds  of  labor  as  most 
farm  hands  are.  But  if  a  hired  man  takes  some  branch 
of  his  work  and  tries  to  do  that  especially  well,  he  may 
soon  get  a  position  where  he  will  have  nothing  else 
to  do,  and  specialists  are  usually  better  paid  than 
other  laborers.  Take  any  branch  that  you  like,  such 
as  caring  for  horses  or  other  stock,  or  whatever  it  may 
be.  Then  do  that  better  than  any  one  else  in  the 
neighborhood.  Even  if  you  should  not  at  first  get 
more  money  for  it,  the  satisfaction  of  being  above  your 
neighbors  in  some  one  thing,  will  pay  for  your  trouble. 
Finally,  the  most  important  means  of  contentment 
and  happiness  is  education.  Keep  a  book  where  you 
can  pick  it  up  when  you  have  some  spare  time — while 
waiting  for  the  family  to  assemble  to  their  meals  and 
such  odd  times.  I  have  found  time  to  study  algebra 
and  geometry,  astronomy  and  physics,  shorthand,  etc. , 
while  working  by  the  month.  Other  things  being 
equal,  the  farmer  will  pay  the  educated  man  more 
than  the  uneducated.  A  good  motto  is,  “  Make  yourself 
indispensable  to  your  employer.”  harry  s.  howe. 
The  Future  of  the  Alliance. 
This  year  will  furnish  the  crucial  test  for  the  Farm¬ 
ers’  Alliance.  This  organization  has  made  the  duty  of 
study  of  economic  questions  by  its  members  one  of  its 
leading  tenets,  and  has  attracted  to  itself  all  those 
who  believe  that  agricultural  depression  has  been  in 
large  measure  due  to  vicious  legislation.  Its  growth 
has  been  made  during  a  season  of  unrest  on  the  part 
of  the  farmers,  and  there  is  a  lack  of  the  conservative 
force  that  has  served  the  Grange  so  well  in  times  past. 
Last  year  even  the  Grange  came  near  swinging  its 
leaders  off  their  feet,  and  subordinating  all  other  fea¬ 
tures  to  the  political.  Radicalism  ran  rampant  in  the 
Atlanta  meeting,  and  it  was  with  some  difficulty  that 
the  attention  of  the  order  was  drawn  back  more 
closely  to  its  former  aims. 
The  business  and  social  features  of  the  Grange  are 
its  strongest  points.  These  have,  as  yet,  failed  of  full 
development  in  the  Alliance.  The  result  is  a  con¬ 
centration  of  effort  along  political,  though  not  partisan 
lines.  There  is  a  general  feeling  that  there  is  no 
virtue  in  waiting  longer  for  others  to  grant  the  re¬ 
forms  that  are  demanded.  Like  the  renowned  Mr. 
Flannigan  of  Texas,  the  members  cry  :  “  What  are  we 
here  for?  ” 
This  strong  tendency  toward  immediate  partisan 
political  action  has  been  promoted  by  the  formation  of 
the  new  so-called  People’s  party.  This  party  incorpo¬ 
rated  in  its  platform  last  year  the  demands  of  the 
Alliance,  and  the  cry  was  raised  on  every  hand,  how 
can  one  be  a  true  Alliance  man  and  not  vote  the  ticket 
of  that  party  whose  platform  contains  the  Alliance 
demands?  There  were  shown  the  illiberality  and  nar¬ 
rowness  of  vision  so  characteristic  of  the  Prohibition 
party.  The  Alliance  was  pledged  not  to  interfere 
with  its  members’  political  affiliations,  and  any  attempt 
to  drive  them  en  masse  into  a  new  party  was  rightfully 
resented  by  them. 
The  National  Alliance  this  year  will  be  in  much  the 
same  situation  in  which  the  Ohio  Alliance  found  itself 
last  year.  Sufficient  time  for  education  has  not  yet  been 
given.  The  new  party  came  to  us  with  much  crude  and 
undigested  matter  in  its  platform,  and  the  farmers,  be¬ 
tween  doubt  as  to  the  wisdom  of  some  of  the  proposed 
measures  on  the  one  hand,  and  only  a  half  conversion 
from  old  beliefs  on  the  other,  returned  to  their  old 
allegiance,  the  People’s  party  losing  heavily  each  week 
of  the  campaign  as  old  party  lines  continued  to  be  more 
tightly  drawn. 
The  new  party  came  too  soon,  and  its  influence  was 
for  harm  rather  than  good  upon  the  farmers’  organi¬ 
zations.  Another  year  has  now  been  afforded  for  ed¬ 
ucation,  and  in  view  of  the  political  character  of  the 
Alliance,  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  its  future  is  going 
to  be  affected  in  quite  a  degree  by  this  new  party. 
If  the  People’s  party  should  have  the  wisdom  to 
adopt  a  simple,  practical  and  popular  platform,  ap¬ 
pealing  merely  for  the  return  of  our  government  to 
the  producing  masses,  the  reform  movement  will  be 
lifted  higher,  and  the  members  of  the  various  organ¬ 
izations  will  be  encouraged  to  press  on.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  wildest  theorists  make  the  platform, 
and  old  party  leaders  make  no  concessions,  divisions 
and  discouragements  will  do  much  to  destroy  the  use¬ 
fulness  of  the  Alliance.  While  non-partisan,  it  is  too 
political  in  its  make-up  to  have  a  sure  and  permanent 
existence  without  some  hope  in  the  political  horizon 
for  the  successful  attainment  of  its  ends  through  some 
political  party. 
Probably  no  patriotic  citizen,  however  conservative, 
could  see  with  satisfaction  any  great  organized  effort 
for  reform  in  this  country  come  short  of  success,  and 
leave  the  farmers  even  less  confident  than  they  have 
been  in  the  past  of  their  power  to  make  their  influence 
felt  upon  our  legislators.  Political  mountebanks 
should  be  kindly  but  firmly  kicked  out  of  the  reform 
councils,  and  all  wisdom  be  used  to  weld  together  the 
producing  massses  on  a  clear-cut  and  practical  platr 
form.  ALVA  AGEJ5. 
