Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-07-28
Neatuess In the Highway.

The country highway is the connect
ing link Of the American farmers. IL
binds the farms together instead Of sepa-
rating them, and furnishes the means by
which q neighborhood may be unit in
the nation. The common road" is n
common interest, and Is the common
expression Of common life. Along It
the stranger passes, and from II he gains
lasting and very accurate impressions of
those who make IL what it is.
II highway was for travel and Meth
ing more, and travel was simply the
getting from one place to another, then
a good roadbed of the shortest length
between connected points would meet
the full demands of country road. But
people travel largely for pleasure, and
when the going is duty, they desire to
mix as much comfort with the commits
sion as is possible. The roadside is the
constantly changing panorama of all
who pass along any highway.
The writer knows of two equally good
roads, so far as the roadbed is con-
cerned, at equal distances from avillage.
One Is kept clean, not expensivcly so,
the grass is cut, and it well pays the
owners of the land for their work. The
other common road has half-finished
bitches along the side, which bristle
with Canada thistle and other vile
weeds. The fences are hedgerows of
filth and propagating beds for noxious
plants that each year seed down the
whole neighborhood with expensive
pests. The farmers along this portion
of the highway have, with one accord,
| turned the road into a common slop
| jar" into which they throw everything
that is not fit to be seen. In one place
is large brush heap, upon which the
trimmings of the trees in the door-yard
are annually thrown, and become an OBJ
| ject of fright to many horse that
passes by starlight. A little further on
is the log-yard OF farmer. The road
side is appropriated as place where
| the necessary rails are split from year
to year. In this brush the turkeys
build nest, and behind the logs lit
ter of pigs first sees the light of day.
Born upon the highway, these animals
hold all the claims of their birthright.
The next farmer has his barn ION the
road" and with the tumble-down piles
of old lumber, interspersed with broken
harrows and cultivators which surround
it, the passer by must either shut his
eyes, and nose too, or be witness to q
thriftless, and even disgusting scene.
Not far up the road things are even
worse, for, instead of the barn, the
house is ON the public highway, and the
carriage track is daily sprinkled with
the chips that fly from the slow and
melancholy chopper in his boundless
roadside woodward.
The farmers along the well-kept road
way have no better farms than their
slip-shod neighbors on the other side of
the village; they, perhaps, do not make
any more money. But there are some
things in which they are vastly supe-
rior. They live on a higher plane, and
therefore comparison is difficult to
make, and not at all necessary. The
well-kept road gets all the pleasure
driving; no one thinks of going into the
unkempt district except on business.
The tidy road is double and mutual
comfort to those who desire to take a
pleasure drive and to the farmers who
dwell along the highway. Nothing en-
livens the common life of the farmer
and his family like the sight of frequent
vehicles upon the highway.
The difference in the cost of keeping
the two extremes of country road is in
favor of the one that is neat and pleas
ing to the eye. There is an increase OF
hay and a great saving of labor in
killing. The roadside that is left
to itself is not moved, and yields only
weeds. The value of the farms, though
the same at the outset, are widely diff
ferent now. Though the fertility of the
acres may not be far from the same
the well-kept land is always salable a
good price, while the shiftless farmer
must seek buyer for his land.
The rows of maple and elm trees tina
were planted along the good road fifteeI
years ago cost but trife at the time
but are now so valuable that to cut then
down would be counted sin. The.
pay good profit in the shade and beau
ty which they afford, while at the SAM
time the work of wood-making is goin,
on.-Farn, and Garden.