FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 43 



-GOOD ROADS: AN EXPERIENCE WITH THE COUNTY ROAD 



SYSTEAf. 



A. E. PALMER, KAI^KASKA, MICH. 



Kalkaska county was one of the first to adopt this system of I'oad im- 

 provement, four years ago. By the earnest work of some few of our enter- 

 prising citizens, the Board of vSupervisors were induced to submit the 

 proposition "to adopt the county system of road improvement" to the 

 voters of the county. At the election the people adopted it with a bare 

 majority of seven votes. Later three county commissioners were elected 

 and by them a main trunk line, with a few lateral branches^ was agreed 

 upon for future improvement — this line extending across the count}' was 

 ndopted with a view of reaching the several market towns and railroads 

 from the more thickly populated agricultural sections of the county by 

 the most direct and most feasable and easily traveled routes, taking up 

 the lines of township roads where it could be done to advantage and lay- 

 ing out new routes where it was necessary to avoid heavy grades that 

 could not be reduced with a reasonable expenditure of money. At all 

 times having in view the prospective cost of future maintenance of such 

 roads as well as the first expense of building the same. This was not 

 done without a considerable criticism and many suggestions for changes, 

 which might be of benefit to individual interests. 



The commissioners, however, in due time completed their work dis- 

 interestedly and with no object in view except the benefit" to the whole 

 county, losing sight of township boundaries and refusing to adopt the 

 very prevalent idea "rhat tlie ]>rinci])n1 use of section lines is to lay out 

 Iiighways upon." 



Recognizing that 



THE SUCCESS OF THE COUNTY SYSTEM 



depended very largely upon a practical illustration of what could be done 

 out of the materials most convenient in constructing a permanent road 

 where the people could judge of its value by comparison, and realize its 

 benefits by actual use, the commissioners selected as their first object 

 lesson a piece of swamp road, near the village of Kalkaska, than which 

 there certainly was no worse within the county, and upon which the 

 township had, with annual appropriations during the last twenty-five 

 years, expended upwards of !^1(),000 upon tlie first mile, and still this piece 

 of road, over which more travel was obliged to come, than on any other 

 road leading to the village, was at some seasons of the year almost im- 

 passable. This piece of road where the muck varied from two to ten feet 

 in depth was covered with an accumulation of many years application 

 of logs, flattened timber, planks, saw dust, cedar bark, and sand, most of 

 which had to be removed. A well graded turnpike with liberal side 

 ditches, cross drains and center tile drain, with a covering of eight (8) 

 inches of sand, was prepared and upon this was constructed a crushed 

 stone road, lO feet in width, 10 inches in depth, nt a total cost for all the 

 labor and material of |2.7fi(>. 



