Year: 1872

One of the greatest grievances that landholders have to bear, says the Amer tcd'a Farmer, is the want of good roads. Taxes are generally high for the very purpose of keeping the country roads in repair, but there is a want of capacity on the part of those who undertake the work to do 1t systematically, or with any degree of scientific skill. We do not know that we can throw any light upon the subject in the brief space which we can at present spare to it, and we refer to 1t now to put upon record a hint which we find in the Ge1mantoaua Isle graph, from MT. W. Brown, of New Hampshire, which we hope may be taken hold of and improved upon by public spirited citizens in every locality where there is an opportunity to show humani- tarian principles. We will tell it in Mir. Browns own words:

 "A stone which had baff1ed number of highway surveyors, being directly in the horse path, and being of such shape that horse was liable to sustain serious injury, yet no one cared to attempt it's removal. A great deal of labor was spent in covering it up, but in short time it would reappear as bad as ever. Fhe land around was underlaid with ledge, and here it came to the surface. Only by great expense it was thought could it be removed. One morning l took Q man with me, with powder and drills, and Q firm resolution to remove it at any expense. We succeeded in our undertaking. At cost of eight cents to the town we removed boulder of slate stone weighing about five hundred pounds. l give this instance to slow how little labor will remove some of the worst Instructions which have been al- lowed to remain because no one had attempted removal in good earnest"

 A crowbar could be used to advantage in raising stone out of the bed of the road, but no one seems to consider it his business to do it the road-mende1 never dreams that it is in his contract to attend to it, and, consequently, year after year the stone remains, endanger. ing the lives of passengers by the stllm- bling of their horses and the wear and tear to carriage wheels is very serious. Another very serious grievance IS noted by the same writer as prevalent in his State-that of the running at large oi cattle upon the highways. This is a sore evil elsewhere, as farmers in this section can fully prove. All roads are made on land either donated to the pub lie, or sold or condemned for that ex- press purpose, and it has been decided, we believe, in our courts of law for that purpose only-the landholder from whom the body of the road has been taken is still the sole owner of the soil for all other purposes and, whilst he cannot do aught to interrupt the freest trave1 upon it, yet any or all other privileges belong to him, and no one has right tc turn their stock upon the road to feed it upon the grass which belongs to an other. The evil would not be so griev ous were it not for the fact that the cattle, being thus left to roam about when finding their supplies becoming scanty on the roadside, begin to jumI or knock down the fences 6 get into tho more tempting fields before them, while the hogs roofing under the best of pos and rail fences, will, in a single day O. night, do more harm to the crop thar their carcasses are worth.