Country Roads

The following retlections on roads 'rom the New York Tribune are equalj applicable to Michigan. The quesion needs to be agitated until some 'easible system for their improvement 8 provided by the Legislature. "If one could present, off hand, tangirte statistics showing the differenee in value which the various farms of a ownship would have by a perfect system of highwaj'S, over their value when these sources of communication are lef t slip-shod and neglected, the impression such figures might make would be significant and startling. A broad and well kept road running through, or around a farm, is worth more to that farm thm a fine building placed upon it if the road is only a narrow lañe poorly made and wretchedly repaired. While a poor road is not necessarily a re3ult of any particular system of legislation, I am convinced that the antiquated system which prevails in the State of New York has outhved its usef ulaess. The overseers who are appointed under it are, in the majority of cases, almost necessarily incompetent men; the way of collecting and applying commutation money is loóse and shiftless; and the commissioners of highways, whose duty it sbould be to overlookand direct these "pathmasters," as they are called, rarely or never do it. The mode of assessment is such that any incompetent man, whose day's work would not be worth his board, can "work out" his poli tax by carpying a hoe, or leuning upon it faithfully througli the day. But the day itself is not a day which would be of legal length for other work; and the esprit de corps of a group of these workers, as you often see them, is not f ar away f rom the languor and listlessness of a band of easy fishermen. The animal scratching or scraping of the roads in the spring by these toilers does not begin until the corn planting and urgent farm work are done with, when it is taken up perfunctorily, aa iL it were un odious task, rather than with a felish or earnestnes3. That sort of spirit which is apt to estimate any kind of tax in a democratie system as something out of place - a legacy left over from some oppressive government - seems quite often to cling to this, so that to niany the pathmaster's warning to be ready f or work on a certain date is feit as an injurious impertinence. These things might, perhaps, be all borne with, if there was really much skill applied with the work. And for this defleiency the pathmasters usually are not to blame, as they cannot be expected to furnish what they do not possess. To make a good road, or to repair one, requires something morethan ability to handle a plow and direct a scraper. It involves either some degree of engineering ability, or else a good deal of special tact, and, in every e vent, it calis for information that can not be had without a long habit of thought on the subject as well as practical experience. In every town it is fair to suppose there is one man who knows something of this business, and he should be secured fov the whole work of the township, which should be begun as soon as the f rost has left the ground. The Press Association understandj that Victoria was in no way so mi'ch affected by any message of sympuihy as by that froin President Arthur. Among the newest things in stockiugs is the baby's foot.