Pleasant Walks and Drives About Ann Arbor
Judge Noah Cheever's Commentary
Of course there are almost innumberable modifications of these drives which one can make after he becomes familiar with the roads and can make the drive longer or shorter as time and inclination may dictate. I would like to make a few suggestions to the town officers having control of these records.
First. That the mere ploughing and scraping of earth into a road way does but little good and often spoils the road for travelling purposes for a long time after the ploughing and scraping has been done. I have heard many exclaim when passing over such road work, "Well now, our farmer friends have been spoiling the roads again." The best and most durable country road is one where the pike is made comparatively narrow and high enough to be well drained and then well graveled liek the old Saline gravel road or the road running south from the stone school house on the south Ypsilanti road. In giving advice we usually indulge in a great many don'ts. We would then very earnestly say to our neighbors who have charge of the repair and improvement of our country road: Don't scrape sods and stones and lumps of clay into the center of the traveled track and leave them in uneven heaps to be gradually leveled down by teh unfortunate traveller. If you have no gravel and must pike the roads in this way, please put on the heavy drag and drag it down and then with a farm roller make it smooth as possible.
Second. Don't cut down the trees, bushes and vines at the side of the road, unless it is absolutely necessary to keep the road in a passable condition. I have taken a very large number of students and strangers over these numerous drives about Ann Arbor and they invariably enjoy most of thsoe roads where the trees, bushes and vines have been left to grow as nature dictated nearly up to the traveled track. These have been people of culture and refinement and ardent admirers of these beauties of nature and they intensely enjoy the flowering trees and shrubs and the varied forms and colors of the numerous species of our native trees and the flowers that grow under such conditions. Keep the bush scythe and the ax from the road side and the travellers over our beautiful country roads will commend your good sense and sing your praises in all coming time.
Third. I wish also to modestly suggest that a well kept front yard with some flowers and ornamental shrubs and vines, of which there are many in our county, will add to the value of any farm and will be worth twice what it costs to the farmer and his family and the general public who pass by and observe it.
Fourth. Please don't any longer leave the district school house without a fence, or shade trees, lawn or flowers. The character of growing children is developed and formed by their surrounding more than by verbal instruction. Trees and flowers and well kept lawns are instructors of youth as well as public benefactors. It costs but little to provide these and their value as educators cannot be overestimated. We now have the national flag on most of our school houses, let us also have well kept lawns, trees and flowers, which are God's emblems of beauty and the higher and better life.
In travelling over these country roads we do not, as much as we ought, consider the vast amount of time and labor that have been expended to put our country roads in their present condition. Our farmer friends had first to chop off the heavey timber, dig out the large stumps and grubs, cut down the hills, fill in the low places, ditch and pike the entire road, cover much of it with gravel and construct numerous culverts and bridges, and annually expend a considerable amount of time and labor to keep it in condition. I think five thousand dollars a mile would be a low estimate of the actual cost of these country roads and they have done more than the railroads to develop our National prosperity and will be a source of pleasure and profit in all coming time.