544 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE) Off. Doc. 



and gray, eontalning from eight or ten to twenty-flve or even thirty 

 per cent, of alumina which is the binding or cementing ingredient 

 of all clays used for the making of tire brick and building brick 

 and other clay products, and we often see Ihe roads as smooth and 

 compact as any that can be constructed with limestone and sand- 

 stone and less liable to become disfigured if I may use the term, and 

 unsightly by the impact of wagons, autos, etc., which so soon wear out 

 and destroy artificial roads. Is there not a combination of silica, 

 alumina and lime contained in sandstone, limestone and shale, in 

 proper proportion, that will produce a solid and compact road bed, 

 more permanent and lasting, and yet more acceptable to the traveling 

 public, than any road made simply with sandstone and limestone 

 without the aluminum? I think so. In a tentative way, why not 

 test these elements by repeated experiments, using say, from one- 

 third to one-half of clay or clay shale containing, as it does, from 

 fifteen to thirty per cent, of alumina and from fifty to seventy of 

 silica, with a small ingredient added thereto of limestone, and chang- 

 ing the proportions of these several elements time and again, and 

 applying to certain "stretches" of road until the best results are ob- 

 tained. I mean to say, briefly, that this element of alumina, as 

 found in clay, or shale added to the application of limestone and 

 sandstone or sandstone alone, is rational in theory. Alumina in 

 proper per cejit. will make an admirable addition to the road bed, 

 avert very appreciably the wearing away of the road and prevent 

 measurably the dust arising from sandstone and limestone roads. 

 Give this your consideration and notice what nature has suggested. 



Aluminum makes the road smooth and level and if not so hard and 

 compact as limestone and sandstone, yet being somewhat flexible or 

 slightly plastic is certainly more to be desired as a component with 

 limestone or sandstone *or both than the two latter elements could 

 be without aluminum. In short, shale and slate make a better road 

 than limestone and sandstone, by reason of the presence of a certain 

 per cent, of aluminum which has been almost disregarded in road 

 making. A bastard limestone, which is a native cement rock, would 

 be better adapted to the construction of roads than a pure limestone 

 would be, since it contains a small per cent, of alumina. 



Three years ago, I made a few remarks relative to the game and 

 fish laws, with a special reference to deer and trout, and upon the 

 request and insistence of scores of men representing hundreds or 

 thousands of others who enjoy fishing and hunting, I am constrained 

 to make some further comments on the subject. 



The almost universal opinion among trout fishers is, that the num- 

 ber of trout that may be caught should be prescribed by law, and 

 not the length thereof, and no one with experience in fishing the 

 trout streams, can deny that three-fourths or more of the small 

 trout, being less than six inches, die after being caught and thrown 

 back into the stream, and thus the streams are largely depleted 

 of the same. I am sure that instances have become very frequent 

 where the fisher has actually hooked two hundred or three hun- 

 dred small trout before getting what is termed the limit of forty 

 trout, as allowed by the statute. I tried a stream several years 

 ago and caught nine trout of less than six inches in length, and 

 throwing them back, noticed that most of them turned on their sides 



