APRIL 24 
is always dry and needs but little attention in 
years to come. m. e. cook. 
To build a new road on a steep hillside I 
would want a road machine. Commence to 
plow at a point where the center of the beaten 
track will be when the road is finished, plow¬ 
ing with a side-hill plow,turning down the hill 
until you have plowed the road as wide as you 
wish to have it. Then take the road machine 
and move your dirt down to the lower side; 
repeat the operation with plow and machine 
and it will be surprising what an amount 
of road can be built in a day, if you will 
work at it as you work on your farm when 
you have hired a man to help you for a day o r 
two. You must not expect to accomplish much 
if you do not work over half the time, as those 
working on the road generally do. 
I will take our own town to illustrate what 
I think could be done by a tax outside of that 
for the general repairs on bridges. We have 
2,000 days’ work road tax, which at $1.00 per 
day would be $2,000, to be placed as credit. 
Expenses, etc.: One team and plow, two 
men, 100 days at $5 per day, $500; two heavy 
teams and man to drive machine at $7.50, for 
100 days, $750; one man to operate machine 
100 days at $1 50 per day, $150; 50 districts 
paid men for removing stone from road once 
a month for five months, in each district, $250 
—total expense, $1,650; leaving an unexpend¬ 
ed balance of $350, and every road district 
is worked and kept free from stone, while on 
none of them is this done when they are work¬ 
ed in the old way. After a couple of years’ 
working the road by means of a tax, I do not 
think people could be hired to go back to the 
old way, and we could keep our roads in re¬ 
pair at less expense. A. HARRINGTON. 
The great trouble with country roads is 
that they are dishing or hollowed out on top, 
and do not drain rapidly; hence they don’t 
dryout quickly, and are muddy and get rough 
and uneven. They need rounding and grad¬ 
ing, and the machine is the thing to do it with. 
I have, with a machine and six oxen, rounded 
and graded more roads in one day than 100 
men could have done by the old methods, and 
I left the roads as smooth as a floor. 
D. ROBERTS. 
The towns and villages should lead in this 
movement by graveling their streets. This 
would tend to create an interest in the work 
and lead to practical results. Constant and 
thorough discussion in farmers’ clubs, granges, 
and institutes, and in the agricultural and 
local journals will aid greatly in creating a 
live sentiment in favor of better roads. I 
have seen a very fair road constructed through 
a swampy tract by grading three feet high, 
and opening drains to carry off all the water 
rapidly from the ditches. The surface of the 
grade was kept smooth by the use of a rut 
scraper, which was drawn over it whenever 
necessary. This road was built by contract, 
and was kept up by mutual agreement by the 
farmers who traveled over it, and it was the 
best piece of all-earth road that I ever saw. 
F. GRUNDY. 
Roads on a steep hill can be prevented from 
washing, to some extent, by spreading straw 
on them and where they aie sandy they can 
be greatly helped by its use. Roads through 
swamps, if rightly built, are the best. Ditches 
15 to 20 feet apart should be dug, and the soil 
thrown into the road-bed. If possible, the 
water should be drained out of the ditches, 
In some cases the road needs poling or brush¬ 
ing and then enough soil or clay should be put 
on first to hold the brush and then gravel 
three or four inches thick should be put on. 
Under this bead something might be said of 
bridges and culverts which should be built of 
first-class materials, and so built as to last for 
all time. In bridge-building provision must be 
made for all possible high water. Bridges 
should be 20 feet wide or less according to 
travel, the width between the main walls de¬ 
pending on floods. The foundations should be 
so deep that they cannot be undermined. The 
arches should be one foot or more as needed. 
Culverts can be covered with fiat rock. Ce¬ 
ment is cheapest in the end. road maker. 
At every low place in the road, a six-inch 
sewer or tile, should extend across the i oad 
from ditch to ditch. In this way the water will 
be carried off to where it belongs. The pike 
is graded every spring and fall until it be¬ 
comes solid. This work is done by the super¬ 
visors through whose jurisdiction the road 
may pass. The general system of working the 
road is abused. Working here and there will 
never make a good road. The supei visoi s 
should work out, or have it done, every 
man’s road tax that will not work, and this 
work should be applied on one road until it is 
perfectly finished. D - a. fosk 
ROAD LAw'sUGGESTIONS. 
We need a road law, somewhat similar to 
the drainage law, under which road districts 
can be laid out along main roads, irrespective 
of township lines, the same as drainage dis¬ 
tricts are laid out through swampy sections, 
and under which the property benefited by the 
construction and maintenance of such main 
roads can be taxed therefor. It is a simple 
waste of money to build a road and then leave 
it to the care of overseers under our present 
system. Unless it is systematically kept up 
and cared for, the same as railroads are, it will 
soon be reduced to a condition even worse 
than before a stroke was done upon it. 
F. GRUNDY. 
might be done in many places. It would often 
pay a farmer to cut down a hill or straighten 
a curve at his own expense if he could not get 
the town or his neighbors to help him. There 
is altogether too much of the biting off one’s 
nose to spite one’s face policy about improve¬ 
ments in country reads. “What is everybody’s 
business is nobody’s business.” I have known 
men who have driven for years over steep 
hills and through deep mud-holes, who would 
not do anything to improve them solely 
because some grouty neighbor who would be 
benefited would do no share of the work. 
J. H G. 
Previous to last year from $400 to $600 were 
assessed by the supervisors, and worked out 
(sometimes) but generally trifled away by the 
overseers. This tax in the last 30 years would 
amount to over $10,000. For this we have 
little improvement to show on our roads. 
Within the last few years the county and 
town have spent $6,000-perhaps something 
more—and for this we have four stone bridges 
and at least ten miles of road completed and 
on which the repairs are almost nothing. 
Under the old system a tax was assessed and 
the farmer was called away from profitable 
work on his farm to trifle away time in un¬ 
profitable work on the road. Under the sys¬ 
tem of paying a money tax and paying a fair 
price for work actually done, we can, in a 
reasonably short time, see all our roads in 
good condition at all times of the year, pleas¬ 
ant and comfortable for teaming. 
ROAD MAKER. 
I would like to have a law passed so that the 
roads can be worked by a tax. In this town 
we have about 2,000 days’ work, and I would 
like to have a la w so that we could put as many 
dollars to the town abstract as we have day’s 
work, the money to be paid to the commis¬ 
sioner, to be expended by him in working the 
roads. One hundred days’ work with a road 
machine in our town would put our roads in 
better condition than we ever had them. 
, A. HARRINGTON. 
We need a law to compel the road commis¬ 
sioners to meet for one or two days each year 
to get each others’ ideas about how it is best 
to work different kinds of roads, and to talk 
over and look at different kinds of machines 
for road work, and discuss the merits of each. 
Then the best machines would be adopted as 
a rule, and the amount of taxes collected for 
road purposes would be made to do two to 
four times the benefit to the roads that they 
now do. The commissioners should hire men 
to work their roads as a business, so that the 
work will be done in due time. As it is, far¬ 
mers are usually the road bosses and plow, 
plant, reap and work the roads when they 
can’t farm to good advantage. a. h. 
Pittsfield, 111. 
A WISCONSIN VIEW. 
If there is any one subject which demands 
the attention of farmers and taxpayers in vil¬ 
lage and country, it is that of a more system¬ 
atic and efficient system of constructing coun¬ 
try roads. It is conceded by the most intelli¬ 
gent of our Wisconsin farmers that one-half 
of the taxes raised for road purposes, if paid 
in money, and then expended by a well quali¬ 
fied road-master or a commissioner, would re¬ 
sult in better roads than we now have under 
the present system; and yet the work goes on 
in the same old way, and I have actually’ 
known of road districts where not a single 
man was called out to work on the highway, 
and the pathmaster was elected again the 
next year just because he “understood his 
business.’’ In a country of drifting snows the 
proper construction of road fences is another 
important consideration. In some of our 
towns in Southern Wisconsin cattle are not 
allowed to run at large, consequently fences 
are dispensed with except where pasture lots 
are inclosed, and here we are substituting wire 
almost entirely in place of boards. Of course, 
where this is used as a fencing material high, 
ways are never obstructed by snow drifts. As 
one goes further west into Iowa, Minnesota 
and Dakota, the absence of fences is the rule; 
and if the farmers there experience some of 
the drawbacks of Eastern advantages,nothing 
could induce them to voluntarily tax them¬ 
selves to maintain road fences. 
B. S. HOXIE, 
Sec. Wisconsin Hort. Soc. 
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN ROAD-MAKING. 
Messrs. A. W. Gray’s Sons, of Middletown 
Springs, Vt, have to cart their horse-powers, 
and other implements to Poultney, a distance 
of six miles or more. The road is rough and 
hilly. Some two or three years ago they 
went to work, and at their own expense 
straightened the curves and cut down the 
grades. The result is an enormous saving in 
horse-flesh and time not only to the firm who 
did the work but to the farmers who use the 
road as well. This is but an example of what 
farm 
USING THE HARROW. 
Several years ago I sowed a piece of 
wheat upon land where oats had been raised. 
It was well plowed and top-dressed with well 
composted manure, and put in fine condition 
for the seed, which was drilled in at the rate 
of two bushels per acre. I also used as an 
additional fertilizer wood-ashes—all that I 
could force through the drill—from eight to 
ten bushels per acre. The season being favor¬ 
able it made a luxuriant growth before win¬ 
ter set in and the few oats left upon the 
ground also made a rapid growth, so much so 
as in some places to completely shade the 
wheat. It came through the winter in fair 
condition; but as the spring freezings and 
thawings were severe, it looked a good deal 
the worse for the weather. After settled 
weather, in passing over the field I discovered 
that most of the apparantly dead wheat 
was the growth of oats lying upon and be 
tween the rows of wheat, in some places al¬ 
most smothering the wheat plants. I took an 
old-fashioned winged harrow and drove 
lengthwise of the rows and after a few times 
across the field, left it. I carefully examined 
it to see the amount of wheat torn out by 
the harrow, and was surprised to find scarce¬ 
ly one plant in a row of 40 rods. I was sur¬ 
prised at the result. At the end of the week, the 
wheat was green and lively, while the remain¬ 
der of the piece was yet covered with the dead 
oats, no apparent growth having been made. 
I again started the harrow, going twice in a 
place through the field, leaving one strip 
through the middle not harrowed. 
Old farmers shook their heads and some 
even said I must be crazy—I would spoil my 
wheat. The difference was so marked that 
every one who was skeptical before was con¬ 
verted as to this one piece at least. That har¬ 
rowed first held the lead all the season and 
produced the finest heads and plumpest ker¬ 
nels; the second harrowing came next, that 
not harrowed falling in the rear to the tune of 
at least five bushels (as nearly as could be cal¬ 
culated) to the acre—I should have said that 
after harrowing I rolled the piece. 
I never fail to harrow my winter wheat 
even that sown broadcast, and then I put on 
the roller. The harrowing removes all dead 
and musty leaves, loosens the ground, letting 
light and air in, and in every way benefiting 
the crop. No one need dispair of a good catch 
of grass seed if sown upon this newly harrow¬ 
ed land before the rolling. 
One year having my harrow left at the far¬ 
ther side of my corn field, and needing it else¬ 
where I drove cornerwise across the field of 
corn after it was four inches high, and to my 
astonishment did not pull up one spear of corn, 
and to my still greater surprise saw during 
the entire season that particular strip of corn 
in advance of the other portion of the field. 
I always use the harrow'thoroughly upon my 
potatoes as soon as they show themselves 
coming through the ground. This loosens the 
soil, destroys the weeds, pushes the potatoes 
fully one week ahead of those not harrowed, 
and lessens the cultivation and hoeing ma¬ 
terially. Use the harrow. Be not afraid of 
FRUIT GROWING AND CLIMATE OF 
CALIFORNIA. 
Readers of contemporary agricultural and 
horticultural papers have been looking for 
graphic, detailed, and interesting accounts to 
come in the form of reports from many of the 
numerous successful fruit growers and ac¬ 
complished writers who made the trip to Cali¬ 
fornia to meet the grand fruit growing con¬ 
vention there. But so far, the returns have 
been, meagre and therefore I have ventured 
to send you a third letter from a gentleman 
whose previous ones have given us clearer 
views of the inside of California farming and 
fruit growing than we have often had. And, 
by the way, what does this silence signify; 
that in the wish to say nothing that is not 
good of their hospitable entertainers and their 
glorious country and climate, the visitors feel 
under the obligation rather to'say nothing, 
than to show only the shining side, and by 
inference, lead their friends and customers at 
home astray? Still, probably nothing would 
be received with more satisfaction by produc¬ 
ers and consumers of fruit than a brief, 
graphic and clear account of the light and 
dark sides of California fruit growing and the 
California climate. b. f. j. 
Auburn, Placer Co., Cal. 
The last time I wrote we were in the midst 
of our cold snap. It lasted about ten days; 
then we had a thaw, followed by a rain, and 
we were reminded of Central Illinois in spring. 
But it soon settled and we have had delightful 
California’ winter weather since, just warm 
enough to relish outdoors during the day and 
cool enough evenings to enjoy a fire. The 
pasture fields have looked green for the last 
month with the starting of native grasses. 
They are of slow growth as they come from 
the seed. The Alfalfa is from four to six 
inches high. We get one crop without, and 
have two crops later by irrigation. Wheat, oats 
and barley look well, but seem to grow slower 
than they would in Illinois in the same weath¬ 
er. We sow these grains anytime from Novem¬ 
ber to]the first of March. The cultivated wild 
oats are the favorite hay, but all the grains 
grown in these foothills are cut for hay. 
The early fruit trees are in bloom—peaches, 
apricots and almonds. The cold froze the 
rose-bushes, so they have to start afresh to bud 
and bloom. It Is the first winter for years we 
have been without roses in the open yard all 
through. But they will soon bloom again. 
The China lilies, japonicas, violets and other 
hardy flowers are blooming now. Strawber¬ 
ries are in blossom too. Some are through 
planting gardens, some are still planting and 
some have potatoes up and peas in bloom. 
Turnips and cabbages can usually be grown 
during the winter months, notwithstanding 
the weather, and so of hardy garden vege¬ 
tables. I never was in a place where the far¬ 
mers bought so great a share of what they 
lived on as here in the foot-hills. The reason 
I know not. The grape-growers are now- 
pruning their vineyards, setting out vines and 
trees. The nurseries have sold out most of 
their leading varieties, and fruit culture is just 
getting started. One nursery in Sacramento 
has a consignment of 6,000 prune trees coming 
direct from France, the supply being exhausted 
here; and orange and lemon trees from Florida 
are arriving by car-loads. People here have 
faith in the culture of the citrus fruits, not¬ 
withstanding the set back they have had in 
this section in the cold snap of January 5 to 
15. They were frozen hack one years' growth 
at least. But large numbers of orange trees 
are being set out here and also north of us. 
The cold spell did not hurt the price of real 
estate, as it is slowly creeping up. People 
find there is a difference in California climates; 
and as Auburn has a State reputation for an 
Italian climate—no fog or malaria- and can 
show citrus fruits not surpassed for variety 
and quality by any part of the State, 
things are booming in Placer County. Some 
rich bottom lands can surpass us in quantity 
of grapes but not in quality. These facts 
becoming known, persons retiring with money 
are seeking this county, so that in five years 
you will know of Auburn as well as Los 
Angeles, as one of the foremost towns of the 
State. 
The blizzards of the Northwest were a big 
thing for California; and the cyclone at Mount 
Vernon, Ill., was capital for real estate men. 
It was amusing to note the effects of cold on 
the native residents here; 20 above zero af¬ 
flicted them as much as 20 below did you East. 
The Chinese dread cold and snow—they do not 
like to work in wet or cold weather, but stay 
in their shanties on the ranches snd pass most 
of their time in bed. The 11th of this month 
was Chinese New Year. Their holiday com¬ 
menced on the 10th. They make presents the 
day before to their employers; then New 
Year’s morning open the day with fire crack¬ 
ers, and the day through makes Fourth of July 
seem tame. They make offerings of cooked 
chickens to their idols and then eat the good 
things themselves. I had a talk with my China¬ 
man about his offerings. Hesaid: “Chinaman 
no like to talk. I do same like my father; he 
like his father, all read the law out of one 
book, no change; white man talk too much, no 
boy do like his father. White man change all 
the time, because he talk so much.” I scored 
one for John for his confidence in the faith 
and rites of his fathers. It would gratify far¬ 
mers in the East if they could commence and 
work as we are doing, all in a hurry to get the 
spring work done before the rains cease, we 
have had here about 20 inches and expect 10 
more at least. When I think of the rapid in¬ 
crease of orcharding, I almost wonder if 
you East of the mountains will take all the 
fruit, for a few years will increase the 
