AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
TTapm, GrarcTen, and HConseliold., 
«ASIiIOTJLTtniEi 18 TIIR MOST TIKAJ.TWFCL, MOST CSEFCr^ AS» MOST NOBtE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.’*-’^«Hi!*atOK. 
ORA-BJCwE JIUlJD C/O.j 
PMBLISHEaS AND PKOPEIETOB8. 
Office, 34 s BROADWAY* 
! 
ESTmiSHED m 1842. 
PofellsbeC! Also in German at $1.50 a Year. 
{ $1,50 PES ANITOM, ITT ABVAJSTCE. 
‘ SINGLE NUM]^EB, 15 CENTS. 
■< IjrJLJ AJU.JJ'AUAVj 
(ICepieH for S 5; 10 for $ 12; 30 or more, $ leach. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, .Tune, 1873,,by Orangk Judd & Co., at the OfiSce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLTJME XXXII.—No. 7. 
ISTETW YOK.K, *JTJLY, 1873, 
NEW SERIE^-No. .318. 
ROAD M 
rCOPTBTOTrr SECullEB-l 
E N D I N G.—«««* Enoraved Jot the American Agriculturist^ 
In the above engraving is represented a scene 
ot very common occurrence in the mtijorit}'' of 
country districts. Working out tlie road-tax is 
generally made an occasion for mingling a little 
work will! a good deal of good-natured gossip, 
some politics, and much discussion as to the 
propriety of this way or that way of filling up 
a mud hole or repairing a ditch. If this should 
be looked upon in a Way that would occur to a 
person of the amiable disposition of Mr. Grad- 
grind, he might object to such a method of do¬ 
ing business as far from economical, and as a 
waste of time. But Mr. Gradgrind was no 
farmer, and never worked out his tax. We 
have done so, and we know how much a man 
feels better all over after an liour’s shoveling is 
followed by an equal amount of rest, and 
moreover it always turns out that tlie road¬ 
work is “ done,” even tliougli it should need to 
he done over again in the same way next season. 
But yet it did sometimes occur to us that Uiis 
was not quite tho way in which work was done 
at home, and the question “Does this pay? 
came up occasionally for consideration. We 
confess to thinking it did not., and still hold to 
that, opinion, and have little doubt that in 
countrv road-maklug and mending, as well as 
in almost all other Ihiugs, “old things are pass- 
iuf- away.” If there is one thing more than 
another in which we need to mend our ways it 
is in regard to our country roads. The better 
the roads the more valuable the farms alongside 
of them, and the greater the value «f^every 
pound of produce cartecT over them, x h>s is 
true without a question. Then-it becon . 
serious matter lo have ro.sds bin t so 
they may be easfiy passable, and be kept so 
without neediug the annual outlay of seveial 
days’ work to cack fimner m repaiung them. 
T he above is an exact reproduction 
of the page of American Agriculturist 
of 1873, just a half century ago. 
There are in the American Agriculturist 
office, bound volumes of practically every 
issue that has been printed since the paper 
started in 1842, and the well-written articles 
make extremely interesting reading to-day. 
In looking through these old papers, one is 
impressed with the fact that farmers strug¬ 
gled with many of the same problems that 
still remain unsolved. One of them is^ too 
much human nature in road making. Times 
and customs may change, but human nature 
is about the same yesterday, to-day, and 
to-morrow. 
Some progress has been made in road 
making, to be sure, especially along the main 
highways, but the improved roads we have, 
have cost altogether too much money; and 
when it comes to the dirt roads, the least 
said about them, the better. Mud and rock 
are scraped into the middle of-them in the 
spring, as a usual thing, doing more damage 
than good. 
What is needed to get better roads is a 
little less human nature like that so well de¬ 
picted in the old picture, and a little more 
hard work mixed with some common sense. 
Then, perhaps, we might have some dirt 
roads that woiild go far to help solve the 
marketing problems of the farmers who have 
to live on them.—T he Editors. 
