The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-09-30
Along the Roadside.

fthin9 Which has n green sWfacatSeelnS
mott only kbefitting. but Beautiful. in
April and May. The incipient weeds,
even, are ornamental, and blend so with
-guneraify fresh color OF grass and
foliage that, whether we relish their APP
pearance or not. we do-snpt feelg that
their mere presence 6AeYhlb THE 'ieh1
The tender-leaved spear-mint is pref
ny, toothsome mcrsel when 1T first
pierces its way, through the roadside
sward in spring; but when August
comes it has a specially rank and UNI
tidy garmenture. And this coarse. re-
pulsiye look comes to all the various in
traders on the roadside grass-plats in
this later period. .yiruCD .ysrJor. =.
.leonfess, when our long, cold win
ters are over, | feel sympathy with
every effort that is made to cover the,
brown. bare earth. can almost give
q sort of. lenity to the widespread plan
tain, and ann not so eager to strike the
hoe at 1.-THE root of the persistent bur-
dock as / am now. But there are too
many who leave the hoe and scythe al
together alone, so far ias concerns the
roadsidepand suffer ,ieven now, when
they are in their worst estate, all man
roadside lawns. In one place you will
see large patches of the thick branch
ing May-weed; In another such high
stalks rs the angelica and elecampane
spread themselves into nearly inn
passable thicket; and even such pests
as snap-dragon and charlottesville are
in frequent and shameful occurrence.
Now, it is neither good taste nor good
farming where YOU can make these OBJ
servations and frame this Indictment.
In fact, it is hard to do good farming,
and keep your own fields free from
weed pc SIS, when your neighbor' road
spacefiS made nursery for every evil
bearing seed. The solidarity of inter-
est between man and man is nowhere
better illustrated than where care and
slovenliness come together on two adj
jacent farms. 1t is even exasperating
to do well when your neighbor harbors
the very enemies, you strive, year by
year, to exterminate, and, after giving
literal hospital, leaves them where the
winds and the elements send them back
upon you in refreshed battalions. 1t
would seem to be enough to be obliged
to fight the evil forces themselves with
out having to encounter human help
leagued in their behalf. sut.
So MANY State Legislatures have
come to this conclusion that we have
now in nearly every State, some law
about weeds that only needs to be en-.
forced to compel their destruction on
every highway. In this State the law
is sufficiently special and stringent for
every purpose that law can fulfill;
but, so certain is law not valuable
where public sentiment is itself languid
and slothfub on the subject, the result is
only partially what one would wish.
Where there is village or neighborhood
pride on the, subject, the weeds are dis
posed of without notice of the law
and where no one cares the law is not
operative. lal. d rsIs- .f.,.a. b.. 4.a.
There is, of course, some reason why
laws of this kind are not easily sus-
tanned. 1t. is certainly not, pleasant to
complain of your near, neighbour, who
NAV be Kind and neighborly in every
respe It but this and one feels that it is
a little in the nature of iofliciousness to
complain of those who live affair of. If
you are prompted by a virtuous motive
to do so, your good. intention will be
either misconstrued or set down to some
plausible ill-sqspicion. At any rate, the
law stands i'll allits 'firmness and integ-
rity. and as 4 rides along the dusty
August roads perceive that the weeds
stand, too, in all their ughness and de-
formity. The Canada-thistle seed, in
large patches, is winged for its fight;
the brown spikes of dock are fun OF
evil fruitfhlhess, and motley of other
undesired growths is strung along the
read borders.4) gu,1 ia .G Ist no
Isuppose if Oscar Wilde had come
amongst US TO uphold an, aesthetic treat
ment OF, the landscape he would hardly
have succeeded III gaining his present
notoriety, and wo6ld-not have won his
estiinated S30,000. But the field is well
worth working on its economical aspect,
One cannot easily oYerrate the increased
value which a farm or country. house.
gains by, having all the approaches to it
look neat and thrifty, as against a cor
responding one where the roadways are
deformed by every careless and pestifer-
Gus growth "A clean lawn is itself a
mantle OF beauty and n badge of value;
and where the whole domestic land
scape is kept in conspiracy to this end
the township and neighborhood at once
rise In value and popular estiaiationHoi
A correspondent Of 4 prominent Eos-
ton paper has lately described model
Massachusetts town where every mans
d9qr-yard frontage has been put in con-
spicPpqfogs healthy rivalry with its neigh.
borr 1t is impossible to, find a piece of
litter either on The. street or lawn. 1t
Is all as if it werei swept. Before he
thought, he carelessly threw, away an
abandoned card on the sidewalk, but
this seemed at onee such an otlense he