Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1 Page: 81 of 444
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CAUSES OF BAD ROADS. 41
In New England two causes of bad health have
been avoided in the villages. The houses are not
crowded together, but most of them stand apart, and
the width of the streets is ample; the buryinggrounds,
also, are not beside the churches, but at solitary
spots along the sides of the highway. They
are rudely inclosed, and present a melancholy spectacle
of pale white tombstones standing forth alone
on the bosom of a wild and stony country.
Causes of Bad Roads.--We dined at Worthington,
a very small village twenty-one miles from Pittsfield,
and as the day has been wet, and the road bad, the
drive has been dreary. On talking with a gentleman
whom we met about the bad state of the roads, he
remarked, " that they, like every thing else in this
country, are under the direct control of the people.
The people are chiefly farmers who own their own
land, and they have a great aversion to part with
their money for any object which is not calculated
to give them individually a return of profit. " But,"
said I, " good roads would benefit them all by raising
the value of their property." "' In winter," said he,
" the roads are covered with snow, and sleighing is
then good; in summer they are dry and hard; it is
only in spring and the fall that they are soft and bad.
The farmers find the summerand winter the most convenient
seasons for transporting their produce to market;
and, besides, they can sell the most of their crops
at their own doors, or at the nearest villages, and care
very little for the means of transportation." " There
is still much ground to be cleared here," said I.
VOL. I. D
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Combe, George, 1788-1858. Notes of the United States of North America, During a Phrenological Visit in 1898-9-40: Volume 1, book, 1841; Edinburgh, Scotland. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1028/m1/81/?q=%221838%3F%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.