Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1912-11-26
AMONG THE FARMERS.
"sPEED THE PLow."

II =
| speed THE PLow."
Correspondence on practical Agricultural topics
| Is solicited. Address all communication In
tended for this department 70 HENRY d
HAnh0sp, Agricultural Editor Oxford Dem
Improving the Country Wayside.
How many have ever stopped to
think of the amount of land worse than
wasted along the roadsides Of rural
Maine? The soil there 10 without doubt
an average with that of the farm adjoin-
ing, and might, with little effort, be
made either useful or Ornamental; quite
possibly both. Instead, much OF 1t Is a
nuisance and an eye-sore to transient and
resident alike, . libel on the taste and
thriitiness of the citizens Of the Pine
Tree State, through being covered with
q valueless crop of weeds and bushes,
strewn with rocks from field and high
way, and disfigured by heaps of rubbish
from farmyard and garret. =
OF course these conditions do not OBJ
tain in the larger and more thickly set
| tied townships-uor everywhere In those
more sparsely inhabited-but any can
did d-minded person must admit that they
are far too common, even along the bor-
ders of farms otherwise admirably car
ried on. Such slovenliness is no credit
to anyone, nor does it give visitors fair
idea of the bone and sinew OF the yeo-
msnry of Maine. Why should this con-
dition of affairs be suffered to exist?
As concrete example, the writer has
in mind small town, exclusively agri-
cultural and entirely without msnufac-
lures, save for two small sawmills idle
considerable portion of the year.
Though small, this town is badly cut up
by highways, having at least seventy-hve
miles of road, all having at least rod
ON each side not in actual use for travel.
This means three hundred acres OF road
side, enough for three good-sized farms,
or twice as many small ones. Multiply
this some hundreds of times-for it is
perhaps fair type of the majority OF
country towns-and the possibilities OF
the roadsides of Maine begin to appear.
To return to the section in question,
more than half of the borders Of its high
WAYS is a ragged, unsightly tangle OF
rocks, weeds, bushes and brush-hsaps.
A large portion of the remainder, though
cut over after q fashion each season Is
rough and strewn with stones OF all
sizes, the larger ones and the fences
thickly fringed with rank weeds and
bushes. Are the farmers willing, or is
ir fair, that strangers should judge OF
their character and thriftiness from the
most noticeable portions of the land on
which they live?
Who is to be blamed for such undesir-
able conditions? Primarily the land
owner, of course. The writer has seen
where a farmer cut his wood by neg
lected roadside during an "old-fashion-
cd winter" actually leaving stumps
averaging four feet in height. He has
seen kitchen and closet rubbish, broken
bottles, old rags, battered cans, rusty
tinware and such refuse, as we'll az worn
out shingles and rotten timbers from re-
paired or demolished outbuildings,
heaped in horse-losds just outside the
travelled way, not to mention tons OF
rock from the cleared fields close by.
Shattered sleighs and broken buggies 8,
wrecks of racks and ruined horserakes,
with other wornout farm implements
too numerous to mention, too often mud
a death, if not burial, beside the high
way. There are far too many farmers
who seem to look on the roadside az
simply a public dumping-place, never
once thinking that such use spoils the
appearance Of otherwise well-kept prem
ises, beside reducing their value by hun
dreds of dollars, it may DO.
But the landowners are not the only
offenders in this respect. Crews OF men,
under road commissioner or highway
surveyor, annually SOW the roadsides
broadcast with tons Of the very best
road material, in the shape OF stones
from the highway, many OF which roll
back into the ditch again later, TO under
90 the same treatment again as soon as
the washout they eventually cause shall
have occurred. Then, too, during occa-
sional spasmodic attempts to check ma.
ture in her efforts. to conceal such dismal
places, all trees, big and little, are indis-
criminately slaughtered and left lying IN
a hideous tangle where they fall, shell
ter for the young sprouts that renders
useless any future attempt to keep them
down.
The writer has seen q mile Of cool and
pleasing driveway through woodiot' on
the main road to thriving and prosper
Gus village, thus "bushed OUT to the
road limits, not even sparipg pines, hem
locks and hardwood trees up to twelve,
fifteen, and even eighteen inches in
diameter. As the owners were AZ dis-
tance and the season was busy one,
cords of wood and hundreds OF feet OF
good sized timber rotted where It fell,
and, with shade removed and the breeze
kept out by trees farther back, the
former delightful road was transformed
into torrid cutting through hideous
slash-a fre-trap that escaped a confia-
grafton only By a miracle. In another
case he has seen line of sugar-maples
that someone, with an eye to future use
and beauty, had trimmed and spared
when removing the other growth, ruth.
lessly sacrificed, when they were fine
trees eight or ten inches through, by
another town "bush-cutter" some years
later.
OF course q town has an unquestioned
right to all land needed for its public
travel, but this right can be, and fre-
quentiy is, abused through the igno-
rance or malice Of those In charge OF its
highways. 1t is . matter OF personal
knowledge that trees loaded with Bald
win apples almost ready to pick, and not
reaching within ten feet OF the wheel
track, have been wantonly mutilated
and spoiled. The writer has also known,
after the owner had labori0usly cleared,
smoothed, and dressed and seeded down
beside the highway, and the young grass
would cut ton 10 the acre. road crew
to throw a cartload Of rocks into the
growing crop. He has seen the drive
ways to fields, gardens, and even build
ings, cut off by deep bitches; unlawfully,
of course, but what is one 10 do after
the mischief IL done and the remedy Ia
worse than the disease?
What snail be- done to improve the
present undeslraple conditions OF many
roadsidesa Nothing difficult. Simply
let every landowner improve his own as
far az possible, and let every officer re-
spect and assist his efforts in every way
be can. All stones taken out Of the
roadbed cau be used to advantage near
by. either whole or crushed; failing In
that, they should be put where they will
stay and will be a. inconspicuous a. pos.
sible. Also it should be borne In mind
that large trees, we'll trimmed, are an
S..ao. 20 a road rather than n detri-