Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1881 — Conntry Roads. [ARTICLE]

Conntry Roads.

Prot. A. B. Hyde,in American Agriculturist, speaks as follows: The farmers of the distriot are notified to appear at a eerteiu date lor duty. One or two teams and a dozen men gather to the portion of the road to be repaired. As the road district is a certain unit of democracy each man is as good as a boss, and is mostly exempt from labor; the boys flourish the spade and hoe, Lut the horses are the laboring class. As for our earth works, the deep and narrow side ditches are cut still deeper; the large stones and small boulders along the footpath are rolled into the center of the track and tJbe finish given with a top-dressing of sod. Logs, rails, eto~, are then laid on the flanks to c impel travel on the center. / ?{“U* P l "® o ®*® be interrupted (which often happens) the road is left variegated with piles of dirt wbieb sometimes lie unspread f«*r tire seas'tri, remind!ug the traveler"rolling through an unfiiendly world,” that purogthjqg had been done toward improvement. Probably we can all see that thtrik not a good way to do it. Is there not a better way? A few citizens, our best farmers, aro proposing to use the same good and strong sense on the road as

they use on the farm. A letter from the original Me Adam to a farmer in central New York, was long kept, in which he says: “Remember that in your region, if you keep stones out and water oft, you have a road.” Simple advice, yet needing wit to follow it! Two ideas are growing in the minds of our people, both tending to reform. One 19 to find a man who has plain engineering wit adequate to road making. In some districts one needs a lamp at noon to fifld him but wheu found he is a treasure. He is to be put and kept in charge of the roads. The other is to make tbe tax a cash business. The assessment being -payable in cash,the overseer can employ whom he chooses, and if he employs the residents of his district, they work better on a cash basis. A good road saves wear and tear of wagon, horees and driver, it tells a pleasant tale of tbe good sense and good faith o' the neighborhood, and it addn something material to the value of every farm along its course.