St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-07-06
Country Roads.

AiN N'thbiI lS lllC NOu-
Meeting link of the American farmers.
1t binds the farms together instead of
separating them, and furnishes the
means by which Il neighborhood may
he unit i'll the nation. The common
road" is ii common interest, and is the
common expression of Il common life.
Along 1t the stranger passes, and from
it he gains lasting and very accurate
impressions of those who make it what
it is.
If a highway was for travel and moth
ing more, and travel was simply get
ting from one place to another, then "A
good road bed 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 de-
sire to mix as much comfort with the
commission as is possible. The road
side Is the constantly changing pano-
rama of all who pass along any high
way.
The writer knows of two equally
good roads, so far as the road bed is
concerned, at equal distances from a
village. One is kept clean, not ex-
pensively so, the grass is cut and it
well pays the owners of the land for
their work. The other common road
has half-tinished 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
il common ''slop jar" into which they
throw everything that is not fit to be
seen. In one place is IA large brush
heap, upon which the trimmings of
trees in the dOOryard are annually
thrown, and become an object of fright
to many horse that passes by star
light. A little further on is the log
yard of farmer. The roadside is ap-
prOpriated as a place where the neces-
Sary rails are split from year to year
In this brush the turkeys build a nest,
and behind the logs IA litter 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 ''On the road and
with the tumble-down piles of old lum-
Der, interspersed with broken harrows
and cultivatOrs which surround it, the
passer-by must either shut his eyes,
and nose too, or be IA witness to a
thriitless. Shiftless 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 thA oh hnt L., l.,
and melancholy chopper in his bound
less roadside woodward.
The farmers along the well-kept
roadway 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 vast
ly superior. They live on higher
plane, and therefore Il comparison is
difficult to make and not at all neces-
Sary. The well-kept road gets all the
pleasure driving; no one thinks Of go
ing into the unkempt district except
on business. The tidy road is doub-
lie and mutual comfort to those who de
sire to take Il pleasure drive and to the
farmers who dwell along the highway
Nothing enlivens the common life of
the farmer and his family like the sight
of frequent vehicles upon the high
way.
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 great saving of labor in
weed killing. The roadside that is
left to itself, is not moved and yields
| only weeds. The value of farms,
though the same at the outset, are
widely different now. Though the fer
tility of the acres may not he far from
the same, the well-kept land is always
salable at II good price, while the shift
less farmer must seek buyer for his
land.
The rows of maple and elm trees
that were planted along the good road
| fifteen years ago cost but ii trihe at the
| time, bnt are now so valuable that to
cut them down would he counted Il
sin. They pay good interest in the
/ shade and beauty which they afford,
while at the same time the work at
wool-making is going on Farm and
] Garden