News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-08-28
Country Roads.


portant aid to civilization. The
voice Of this journal was for some
time almost alone in that advocacy,
but now we are but part of a consid-
cradle chorus, in which we shall be
very willing that our modest note
should merge, if only the whole body
OF tone may prove potent to charm
the rural sense. The Tribune has just
produced an interesting report of the
constitution and designs of the New
York State Roads Improvement AS
soclatlon, an organization deriving
its motive power from the enlightened
sense and public spirit of a few gentle
men, among whom perhaps Messrs.
William A. Sweet and Charles W.
Wood OF Syracuse, Mr.. J. Y. McClin-
took of Rochester, Mr.. Thomas R.
Proctor of Utica, and Mr.. Isaac B.
Potter of New York are most easily |
distinguished. Mr.. McClintock, who
is the Secretary of the Rochester
Chamber of Commerce, said in re-
cent address:
The few good roads in the State are the |
railroads and the canals. Curious as it may |
seem, these are so good that they iniure the
IdTlHeTS bEuln is carried over IHpm a us |
tance of a thousand miles at u profit for an |
amount but little above what it costs during |
a large part of the year to haul it from thous- |
ands of farms in this State to the nearest |
railway station. In fact during several |
months of any ordinary year the roads are |
not considered tit may be said) navigable for
heavy loads. One directly disastrous result |
is that of the mortgages on farms. 1t is gen |
orally believed that our farms would be more |
prosperous if more attention was given to
raising vegetables and fruit and dairy pro-
ducts, but, to make any profit on fruits and |
vegetables, it is necessary to haul big loads, |
so as to reduce cost of handling, and milk and |
eggs have to go to market regularly, whether |
it is the good timeof the year or the bad time |
of the year for the roads With improved |
roads, what are now waste products will be- |
come an important source of income, such as |
windfall apples, straw etc, while it will pay
to haul back on to the farms more fertilizers. |
Mr.. McClintOck' contention is
sound, and so is that of the Tribune
when it says;
Those who are familiar with the way in
which roads are commonly built and repaired
will readily perceive that the chief obstacles
to good roads, are thewant of system in their
construction and the absence of qualified
roadmakers. The work is done, so far asst is
done at all, not by men who understand the
business, and who are paid for it, and are
kept up to a proper standard of efficiency,
but by the farmers who discharge their taxes
by scTaping the highways around their own
properties once twice a year. Road making
is a business of itself, and the State never can
have creditable highways until this kind of
make-shift business is abolished and the work
is committed to those who are practised in
doing it. and who have the materials and
tools suitable for what is required of them.
SO also is the remark of the World,
that
Those who insist that our rural communi-
ties cannot afford to build and maintain good
roads are greatly mistaken Every communi-
ty in the country, except in the thinlv settled
new States, can better afford good roads than
bad. 1t is largely question of getting the
worth of the money that is expended
This, indeed, is already we'll known.
The articles by Mr. r. A. Learned in
the Century magazine last autumn,
and by Prof, n. S. Shaler, which, by
a curious coincidence, appeared in
Scrlbner's Magazine of the same
month, completely covered the sub
ject of rural road-making, and the
necessary, practical, and immediate
improvements which could be made
upon the present system even without
increased expenditure The public
mind probably is sufficiently awake
to this side of the question, and we
may have it for the present without
further urgency.
There is, however, another side
the aesthetic side-which, when deeply
| considered, is found to be connected
closely with the economic side
Whether the country roads are good
or bad as to their wheel-tracks, the
question of their borders is more i'm
portant than the ruralist imagines or
can be made easily to understand.
We print in another column letter
taken from the NJ or.t.isyille lYL-l- NEWS
AND CITIZEN, which sets forth what
we should like to urge on this point,
and we have pleasurein reinforcing it
by the utterance this week of our ad-
mirable neighbOr, Garden and For
est, as follows:
But even a good road-that is a road
| which furnishes a smooth wheel-way-may be
an unattractive one, and it is worth while
once more to call attention to the treatment
| of the road borders. We know of few in
stances where systematic efforts have been
made to preserve the growth of shrubs and
| wild flowers which spring up of their own ac-
cord. Where one can see blood-root, bluets,
and lupine, with cone flowers, painted cup. and
and MOSES embroidering the lodges of road
side thickets, the way can never be uninter-
esting from early spring till late autumn, and
even in winter, where the berries of the black
alder and the hips of wild roses are left to
glimmer among the soft tints of the leafiess
twigs of the shrubbery, the eye finds some
thing to delight in.
Too often, however, all efforts at improv-
ing the wayside are made with the grubbing-
hoe and brush-hook. The tidy farmer does
well to cut down the brush along his fences,
which otherwise would keep constantly en-
croaching upon his land, but this practice is
not a virtue when it is extended to the fences
which border the highway. No formal plant
ing can be more beautiful than the spontane-
Gus 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 overhead, and clematis and
ground-nut and moon-seed rioting over the
shrubbery. No park planting can excel such
masses of foliage, and from the time wi en- the
june berry and dogwood and wild plum bios
som in the spring, with viburnum and elder,
honeysuckles aud roses following in close sue
cession until the yellow witch hazei blossoms
brighten up the border in late autumn, there
is no lack of Towering shrubs. All that is
needed to produce the most beautiful effects in
this line is to allow these wild places to clothe
tn mseves, to restrain the too rampant
-rowth of the stronger plants when they be-
come too aggressive and add an occasional
touch, perhaps by setting some low-growing
shrubs like red-root and swee-tfern on the
edges of shrub belt, planting some wild
flowers in suitable openings.
Certainly one of the most grievous
Affections to lovers of nature is the
wreck and ruin too often wrought by
neighboring hands along the inviting
country road, that runs straight
through fiat meadows or over high
levels, or bends and dips elusive
among foothills in clear or darkling
woods. Upon such Affections, or the
remission of them, really depends the
great "summer-b oarder" industry,
an industry with which-we cannot
too often insist-the agricultural
prosperity of the Eastern States is
closely bound up. We cannottoo Of
ten insist upon this proposition until
the farmer shall learn the truth of it.
At present he is quick enough to see
the dollar that comes in to-day, but
not quick enough to see the dollar
which will come in next week, and
he is still farther from seeing the
chance of getting into his own pocket
by and by the dollar Which next week
will be paid into his neighbours peck
ct. He is not yet familiar even with
the elementary truth of the diffusive-
noCc nf fnvnt;Ar ,a.I ,,n+.1 hn