News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-09-18
More About Country Roads.

"a N0OAN
We have drawn attention more
than once to the Importance of good
country roads, from two points OF
view, the unnecessary wear OF horses
and vehicles incident to bad roads.
and the attractiveness of good roads
to summer visitors and possible pur-
chasers of rural homes. There are
encouraging signs that this subject Is
finding an increased place i'll the con-
sideration of country residents, and
in various parts of New England
more is being done than formerly to
preserve natural beauties and to
make the country highways and by
WAYS safe and attractive. There IS
another aspect of this subject, how
I'VE which has not received much at
tention. 1t is quite possible that in
the growing desire to make the coun-
try roads more pleasant for driving,
the natural attractions of the road
sides may be sacrificed to mere trim
ness. 1t is very difficult for the prac-
teal mind of the New England farmer
to understand how the various forms
of natural growth which contribute
nothing directly to the sustenance of
man or beast should possess any
value or interest, and he is disposed
to classify somewhat sweepingly as
"weeds" divers flowers and shrubsin
which city folks delight. Almost ey-
cry one probably has at one time or
another driven or walked along some
country road where an Over-ZealOus
use of the pillow and hoe has wrought
ruthless havoc with the beautiful
growths with which nature had dec
grated the wayside. In a recent
number of the MORRISvILLE (Nt.)
News y CITIZEN, a summer visitor
records his protest against this prac-
tice in a manner which deserves at
tention. He attributes the growing
practice of moving bare theroadsides
to an uninstructed taste for neatness
and trimness, and adds:
swhat / should like to point out is that by
cutting dow the strawberries, elumps of flow
ers and intricate tangles of clematis and other
graceful vines, heetfect of neatness and trim
ness is not produced. Instead of that's only
introduced, in place of one of the most beau
Uniforms of abundant life, a picture of death
and desolation. Let any one drive over one
of your hyroads in the early summer, while
its edges are in their native, untouched con-
dition, and then again n few weeks later, after
the hand of the 'improver' has been LAID heavy
upon them, and note the difference. He Will
find that almost the whole charm of the place
has disappeared. Instead of beauty he sees
only destruction; the long, feathery lines OF
trimming which had bordered the roa on
either side, covering all the rudeness of the
surface, and concealing every unsightly OBJ
80 - ,-4A fRrIl
smelling heaps of decaying heritage"
The writer goes onto urge that this
question of mere taste about the
roads is one of really great practical
Importance, because the large num-
bers of people who spend their sum-
mer leisure in Vermont are attracted
by the delightful natural aspects of
the country, and whatever diminishes
these attractions, as the practice
complained of does, makes againstan
important local business interest. In
similar vein, that admirable journal,
Garden and Forest, says:
1.-The tidy farmer does well to cut Town the
brush along Lis fences, which otherwise would
keep constantly encroaching upon his land,
but this practice is not d virtue when it is ex-
tended to the fences which border the high
way. No formal planting can be more beau
tiful than the spontaneous growth of natures
furnishing where the roads are lined with
thickets of black haw and cockspur, thorn,
sumac and hazel-nut, with the wild grape
clambering over the stone walls and festoons
of bittersweet swinging from the trees over
head, and clematis and ground-nut and
moonseed riOting over the ~shrubbery. No
park planting can excel such masses of foil
age, and from the time when the luneberry
and dogwood and wild plum blossom in the
spring, with vibernuma and elder, honeysuckles
and roses following in close succession. until
the yellow witch-hazel blossoms brighten up
the border in late autumn, there is no lack of
Towering shrubs. All that is needed to pro-
duce the most beautiful effects in this line is
to allow these wild places to clothe them
selves, to restrain the too rampant growth of
the stronger plants when they become too ag-
gressive, and add an occasional touch, per-
haps by setting some low-growing shrubs,
like red-rnot and sweet fern, on the edges OF
shrub belt, or planting some wild flowers in
suitable openings"
1t is perhaps a little too much to
expect the New England farmer to
follow out the closing suggestion by
setting sweet fern and planting wild
flowers to enhance the aesthetic at
fractions of the roadside; but to per-
suade him simply to refrain from de-
stroying thenatural growths already
there which add to the beauty of the
scene, and are not harmful to the adj
iacent farms, ought not to be and
probably would not be a difficult
task. This would be a good subject
for the rural press, those weekly edu-
Gators of the taste and intelligence of
New England country residents, to
urge upon the consideration of their
readers Boston Journal.