272 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 24 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANational Journal for Country and Suburban Home ■ 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. C4.IIJUN. 
Tiir plan proposed by Mr. Dye, page 266, 
of putting about all the work upon the 
main lines of travel and leaving the roads 
that accommodate the few to be worked as 
best they can be, has many strong support¬ 
ers and some bitter enemies. Certain it is 
that unless the greater part of this money 
is spent upon the main lines they never 
will be properly done. It is equally sure 
that those who live on the neglected roads 
will protest most vigorously against pay¬ 
ing taxes from which they think others 
will get an extra benefit. There will be 
the liveliest kind of a contest before any 
such plan can be carried out, but if it can 
be started it will work well. The fact is 
that many communities have gotten so 
deeply into the ruts of their own bad 
road-making that it is going to require 
very heroic treatment to get them out. 
DRY WALKS. 
W hile we are discussing good roads 
let us speak a word about good walks. 
In country places sidewalks are generally 
superfluities. They cost too much, and 
there is not foot travel enough to keep 
the grass down on them. But the walks 
from the house to the gate, to the well, 
to the barn and other places, should be 
carefully attended to. At this season of 
the year it is quite customary to find 
boards laid on the ground, reaching in 
all directions from the back door of the 
farmhouse. One can walk in comfort on 
these boards, but it is unhandy to take 
them up and put them down, and the 
boards decay rapidly enough to make it 
an expensive walk. Broad flag stones are 
excellent, but they are too expensive, and 
many do not like them because they seem 
too much like a city pavement. Large 
stones are sometimes placed side by 
side, and but for the fact that they are 
rough and slippery in wet weather, they 
do fairly well. A narrow pavement of 
brick does well while it lasts. Coal ashes, 
sawdust, oyster shells and shavings have 
been made to do good work on paths. 
Many people make a miniature macadam¬ 
ized road by digging out the walk to the 
depth of two feet, filling in with stones 
and gravel and covering with slag or coal 
ashes. Let us have dry walks. 
LARGE STONES FOR ROAD FOUNDA¬ 
TIONS. 
T he Telford road is built much like 
the Macadam, only that the founda¬ 
tion for the broken stones to rest upon is 
solid and unyielding. A bottom layer of 
stones is set by hand like a close, firm 
pavement. All irregularities fire broken 
off by the hammer, and the interstices are 
filled with stone chips firmly wedged or 
packed by hand. On this solid founda¬ 
tion the broken stones are placed, about 
the same as in Macadamizing. The pro¬ 
priety of this foundation has been much 
discussed. It costs less than the broken 
stones, as large stones can be used with¬ 
out crushing. When a Macadam road is 
laid on a soft and poorly-prepared foun¬ 
dation, the weight of the vehicles forces 
the lower stones into the earth. The 
earth rises up into the interstices and 
forms a mixture which will always be 
loose and open. The water will pene¬ 
trate in winter, and by freezing break up 
the road. It must be said, however, that 
thorough drainage would prevent this, 
though Telford thinks these evils can 
only be removed by packing upon a solid 
foundation. But unless the Telford foun¬ 
dation is built firmly and compactly, well 
tamped and packed, it will be as bad as 
the loose earth foundation. Unless the 
large stones are firmly packed they will 
work to the top. The frost will start 
them, and the small stones will work un¬ 
der and gradually lift them to the surface. 
If large stones are used at all they must 
be firmly packed. 
ROADS BY CONTRACT. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1888. 
The Rural's cross-bred wheats and 
rye and wheat hybrids have come through 
the winter in magnificent order, having 
stood with scarcely any loss a wintry sea¬ 
son scarcely less trying than the average. 
Next fall we shall hope that quite a 
number will have become so fixed that 
they may be propagated for distribution. 
The great enemy to these little wheat 
plots is the English sparrow. 
T he contract system of road-making 
and road mending is strongly ob¬ 
jected to in many localities. What is this 
system ? Briefly stated it involves the dis- 
continuarce of all path masters,road com¬ 
missioners and other petty road officials 
and the placing of the entire work in 
charge of one man who shall give bonds 
for a faithful performance of his duties 
and who shall be paid enough to enable 
him to make a business of road making. 
This man is to be elected for a term of 
years, appointed by the town officers, or 
hired as other contractors are hired. This 
man hires whom he likes and is his own 
master so long as he keeps the roads in re¬ 
pair. Objections to this plan come from 
three classes of citizens: 1. Road mas¬ 
ters and those who hope to fill that hon 
orable position. These want the money 
expended as it now is because they and 
their immediate friends can thus get 
most of it in return for very little labor. 
2. The men who object to paying their 
taxes in cash, but who want to work on 
the road when they can do nothing at 
home. Such men seem to feel that the 
town is bound to hire them whether they 
do good work or not. 3. The people who 
have no enterprise themselves and conse¬ 
quently object to enterprise in others. 
Should a contiactor be hired and paid 
even less money than the town pays to 
the road-masters, these gentlemen would 
immediately decide that he must be a dis¬ 
honest rascal living upon the taxpayers of 
the town without making proper returns. 
These classes form a majority in many 
townships. 
SIZE OF POTATO SEED PIECES. 
D uring two or three years, beginning 
six or seven years ago, the R. N.-Y’ 
gave much time to an endeavor to find out 
what sized pieces and how many eyes to 
the piece would give the most profitable 
crop of potatoes. The result was in favor 
of large pieces with from two to three 
strong eyes, and this is the kind of seed 
we have used ever since. The seed is 
selected from medium or large sized pota¬ 
toes; the “seed” end is sliced off and the 
potato cut into two or three pieces, ac¬ 
cording to size and number of eyes. If 
the eyes are close together, we sometimes 
cut out several eyes, so as to give to the 
remaining two or three a larger propor¬ 
tion of flesh. Given a strong eye or so it is 
deemed of importance that the eyes and 
resulting shoots should be supplied with 
ample food until roots from the shoots 
enable them to secure food from the soil. 
We regard the flesh as holding much the 
same relation to the shoot as the first 
leaves or cotyledons do to the tiny root of 
the seedling plant. They nourish the 
root until it can act for itself. The shoot 
is a stem or planted cutting and from it 
issue both roots and other stems, and it is 
from the latter alone that the tuber (itself 
a stem) forms. Now how many shoots 
should grow in a hill? In other words, 
how many eyes should be planted? In 
the Rural’s experiments above alluded 
to, as will appear from an examination of 
back numbers, as high as 10 eyes (separ¬ 
ate) were planted in a hill. The yield in 
weight was, in many trials, as great as 
when fewer eyes were planted, but the 
quantity of marketable potatoes was 
much less, the number of small potatoes 
being far greater. We also tried whole 
seed both of large and small tubers and, 
going to the other extreme, separate eyes 
of small potatoes and even the peelings, 
each having an eye or so. 
As above stated, the results led us to 
prefer from two to three strong eyes cut 
from fair-sized potatoes, dividing the 
flesh as equally as might be. We want 
strong eyes and strong shoots supplied 
with all needed nourishment until they 
can support themselves. If a shoot from 
a small piece of flesh is broken off or 
frost-bitten or injured in any other way 
before roots have been formed, the shoots 
perish because their supply of food is 
exhausted, not having made any con¬ 
nection with the soil, and a missing hill 
is the conseqence. 
- »♦ ♦ . . 
ROAD WISDOM. 
W e have tried, as far as possible, 
this issue to let our contribut 
tell their own story. We know them 
be eminently practical men who kc 
what they write about. The advice 
such men is surely entitled to serious f 
thoughtful consideration. Let us lc 
more particularly at a few of the impc 
ant points upon which our correspondents 
are practically unanimous. 
1. It is next to impossible to find a man 
who is satisfied with the present condi¬ 
tion of our roads. The great majority of 
farmers apparently are opposed to any 
change in the system of working that in¬ 
volves extra outlay of capital, but none 
are found to say that the roads are as 
good as they could be made. The 
toughest question, then, is met at the out¬ 
set—How shall we create an interest in 
our roads? It is generally held, and we 
think rightly, that if the improvement 
can once be fairly started it will not go 
backward. 
2. As a means of creating public 
interest in good roads, most of our cor¬ 
respondents favor “an object lesson;” 
that is, they believe that if a few public- 
spirited citizens can unite and make a 
piece of thoroughly good road, the ad¬ 
vantages of their work will be so apparent 
that others will be sure to join them, un¬ 
til a majority of the district or township 
will be brought to favor improvement. It 
is evident that the man who proposes to 
start a road reform has got to make a 
martyr of himself to a certain extent. He 
must “talk road, dream road, sing road 
and write road” on all occasions, and be 
looked upon as a “road crank.” Without 
such a man some communities will never 
start. 
3. The improved road machines are to 
the old plow and scraper what the reaper 
and mower are to the old grain cradle and 
scythe. We consider that this proposition 
is amply proved by our correspondents. 
There ought to be a road machine in 
every township of this country, and in 
townships where an effort is to be made 
to Macadamize the roads, a stone crusher 
will easily pay for itself. 
4. In order to make proper use of a 
road machine the present system of work¬ 
ing the roads by districts must be done 
away with. As much as possible of the 
tax must be collected in cash, and the con¬ 
tract for keeping the township roads in 
repair given to some one who knows how 
to make roads. This plan is strongly ad¬ 
vocated. It has much to commend it. 
We have never heard of a case where it 
has failed to work good results. 
5. Road making is an important and 
intricate operation. It is evident that a 
man must know something about it in 
order to be worth anything as a road 
official. The common practices of elect 
ing a road master because he has done 
good work for the party, because he 
needs the money, because everybody likes 
him, or because he was the last man to 
move into the neighborhood, are absurd 
and wrong. 
These are a few of the points made 
elsewhere in this issue. We believe them 
to be in the main sound and true. They 
are at least worth studying oyer. 
BREVITIES. 
Raise lots of carrots. 
Ensilage Special Next. 
Professor Shelton comes to the defense 
of listing corn on page 281. 
The rainfall is something remarkable, and 
no doubt betokens a droughty suihmer. 
Water destroys more road-beds than any 
other agency. A good road maker should be 
“drain crazy.” 
Don’t forget that the roads through your 
farm need improving also. Read what Mr. 
Brownell says on page 266. 
The bean crop has proved very satisfactory 
of late. Prices have been good. We shall 
tell about raising beans next week. 
And the land is still (April 14) too wet to 
work. It will be at least a week before the 
potato “Contest” plot can be planted. 
As the distance from gravel, stones or other 
good road making material increases, extra 
attention should be paid to ditches and drains. 
Standing water is death to a road. 
Sand is best in wet weather and clay is best 
in dry weather. The man who first noticed 
this and put his discovery into practice by 
putting sand on clay and clay on sand was 
the first scientific road-mender. 
Mr. Hodgeman’s figures on another page 
will startle some farmers, and it is well that 
they should. How many miles have you 
traveled over such a road, rather than advo¬ 
cate and insist upon a new location? 
Nothing is more noticable in our neighbor¬ 
hood just now than the patches of rye. These 
are green and bright while all the rest of the 
landscape is dead and brown. The cattle 
look longingly at this rye. 
Unless the people of a neighborhood or 
township can cultivate a fair amount of pub¬ 
lic spirit, good roads will be impossible. The 
happiest communities are those that learn how 
much of private interest must be sunk to make 
a place for public duty. 
The strength of a chain is measured by the 
weakest link. So the weight of t-he load that 
may be hauled over a country road is deter¬ 
mined by the worst spot on the road. Thus a 
single negligent road master can fix the size 
of a load of country produce that is to be hauled 
out of a township. 
Charcoal roads have given good results. 
They are only of value in sections where tim¬ 
ber is so cheap that it can be burned to get 
rid of it. The lesson for other sections to 
learn is that it will pay to cart the remains 
of old charcoal pits into the parts of the road 
that contain too much water. 
In some sections in Vermont last winter, 
farmers used the harrow instead of the plow 
or sled for breaking out snow-blocked roads. 
In other places a long roller was used with 
good success. During a recent trip through 
Canada we saw several parties using the har¬ 
row on rough roads to smooth down the ruts. 
Stone to be suitable for road-making must 
be both hard and tough. Road-makers speak 
of it as “Road Metal.” The best stones are 
those broken by hand. It is a mistake to sup¬ 
pose that the large, round, smooth pebbles 
found on so many farms will make good 
roads. The best form is "a cube or oblong 
square. 
This is what Adam Smith wrote about 
“working out the tax.” Adam Smith was 
born in 1723. Any change since that time? 
“The money levied is more than double of 
what is necessary for executing in the com- 
pletest manner the work , which is so often 
executed in a very slovenly manner , and 
sometimes not executed at all. 
The timely advice is given that farmers 
should test their seed corn rather than to plant 
without knowing what per cent, will be 
likely to sprout. Far better would it have 
been had farmers saved their seed corn at the 
the right time and preserved it in a warm 
dry room or at least in a dry sheltered place. 
There would in that case be no need to test it 
now. 
In carting gravel onto a road don’t begin 
at the end farthest from the gravel pit. Be¬ 
gin at the point on the road nearest to the pit. 
Thus the gravel first put on will get the ad¬ 
vantage of the traveling needed to put the 
rest in place. What gravel needs is packing. 
The wider your wagon tires are the better 
work you do at this packing. 
The best time to repair a broken stone road 
is in late spring or early summer. If repair¬ 
ing is done in a very wet or very dry time, 
the result is sure to be a heavy or a dusty 
road. One reason why the common system 
of repairing is a failure is because the work is 
not done at the right time. There is a proper 
time to do road work just as there is a proper 
time to plow or dig potatoes. 
The effect of the late decision of the U. S. 
Supreme Court with reference to the oleo¬ 
margarine case, will serve to strengthen the 
case against bogus butter, and will redouble 
the efforts of those who seek to legislate 
against food adulterations. This decision 
was not expected by the oleo men, and they 
have now little standing room left. Keep up 
the fight. The oleo men have all the time 
claimed that the law never could stand, as it 
interfered with their rights. They will now 
have to accept the situation as best they can. 
In this city Recorder Smythe is trying the 
plan of sending guilty oleo men to prison in¬ 
stead of fining them. The plan works sur¬ 
prisingly well. 
There are few hardy plants of the kind, 
that will please better than an assortment of 
irises. Select from pamed kinds of Iris 
Kaempferi. The improved hardy phloxes are 
worthy a place in any garden. Try the ba¬ 
nana for a fine tropical effect, Musa ensete. 
Small plants grow to a noble size during the 
season. Try the Moon Flower for a swift¬ 
growing vine. It is very interesting when in 
bloom. 
We improve a road’s surface with a view, 
1. To substitute a hard and smooth surface 
for the soft and yielding earth. 2. To protect 
the ground from the action of the rain water. 
Let water once get into the soil beneath the 
road and it is soft and yielding. The object 
of the firm road-bed is to supply a roof that 
shall protect the ground from the weather. 
It is not a substitute for the soil under it, but 
a protection to that soil. 
We advocate the improvement of level sur¬ 
faces first. Cutting hills and filling valleys 
should come next. Many will object to this 
programme perhaps. Well, a start has got to 
be made somewhere. Improve the level sur¬ 
faces and the disadvantages of the steep hills 
are all the more noticeable. It will be easier 
to get the public to cut the hills down when 
they find they can haul a heavier load on level 
ground over the new road than they could 
over the old. 
In carting gravel on to a road don’t use a 
dump-cart. Take off the wagon box and put 
two planks of good stiff, light wood up against 
the bolsters. Fill in between them wicli 2x4 
scantling for the bottom. Shovel the gravel 
on to these scantling and drive directly over 
the place where you want the gravel placed. 
Unload by lifting the scantling and sliding 
them up to the planks. The back of a dump- 
cart when unloading is sure to plow up the 
soft material which you want packed. 
An address was delivered before the Massa¬ 
chusetts Horticultural Society two weeks ago 
on “Methods of Labeling Trees and Plants.” 
Nothing better was suggested than the zinc 
label written upon with a common lead pencil. 
Zinc strips can be bought for a trifling price, 
and the writing becomes plain in a few days 
after the laoel is exposed to the weather, and 
remains so for many years. The R. N.-Y. 
can show such labels with the names, which 
were written 10 years ago, perfectly distinct. 
A cross- section of an actual country road 
is shown at Fig. 102. This picture is truly 
“taken from nature.” At Fig. 100 are shown 
two water-bars that would serve to do away 
with the great mounds which some road mas¬ 
ters put on steep hills. A ditch is dug across 
the hilly road in the direction indicated in the 
drawing. At the sides this ditch is paved 
w ith large stones and filled in with smaller 
ones, level with the surface. This arrange¬ 
ment will catch the water and conduct it safe¬ 
ly away, while; there will be no danger of 
beingjthrown^out of„the wagon by a bump 
over a big water_bar. 
