FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 37 



have suggested it will return a thousand fold in the economical and 

 scientific development of your highways in the future. 



Q. How would you drain a road bed where there is a sandy quick- 

 sand? 



A. Mr. MacDonald. — If you have a good gravel bed within two miles 

 the road bed should be graveled after it has been turnpiked. 



Q. What is the expense per mile for grading and graveling in Con- 

 necticut? 



A. Mr. MacDonald.— Generally from |500 to |1,()()0 per mile. This 

 will provide three courses. First, put on three-inch course, roll, then 

 another three-inch course and roll and finally a two-inch course and roll 

 until hoof marks will not show. A road made in this way will often 

 equal macadam. Michigan has the best gravel in the country. 



Q. What is the expens-e per mile when made of crushed stone entirely? 



A. Mr. MacDonald. — For a fourteen foot road, generally less than 

 $3,000. 



L. B. Rice. — Marl and sand equal parts, make a good road when gravel 

 cannot be secured. 



Mr, — — . I wish to thank the commissioner for his remarks com- 

 mending the old system. 



Q. Would you retain the present system or impose a money tax? 



A. Senator Earle. — I would bring in a cash system gradually. 



A COMPARISON OF HIGHW^AY SYSTP^MS. 



BY HON. HORATIO S. EARLE. CHAIRMAN STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION^ DETROIT, 



There is no question in my mind but what every man, woman and 

 child at this .Round-up Institute are in favor of good roads where the 

 traffic is sufficient to pay for the building of good roads, and better roads 

 most everywhere else. 



The matter of systems then is a very proper thing for us as citizens 

 of Michigan to look into, to the end that we may get better roads and 

 get them as cheap as possible. We should look over our own system and 

 then look over that which other states are using or working under 

 that have better roads than we have, and see what we can drop to 

 advantage and what we can put into its place to our own good. 



We have now a conglomerate system, a State system to the extent 

 that we can give swamp land to aid in building State roads, provided 

 that we had any swamp land that would induce anyone to build a road 

 and provided the State would give some locality aid at the cost of all 

 other localities; a county system where it has been submitted to the 

 people by the supervisors and voted for, and a township system where the 

 supervisors have refused to submit it to the people, or where they have 

 and the people have voted it down, and afterwards in either case the 

 people in such townships have used this round-about-extended privilege 



