MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



IF YOU WANT 



BUILD 'EM WITH THE 



Port Huron Dumping and Spreading Wagons 



AND ROLL 'EM WITH THE 



Port Huron Road Roller. 



Write us for Ways to Save Money in Road Building. 



Port Huron Engine & Thresher Co., - Port Huron, Mich. 



Kent County Leads. 



Kent county beats all the rest of Michigan 

 on the mileage of its gravel roads and on the 

 money which it expends for road improve- 

 ment. It has 43O miles of gravel road and 

 expended in 1904 a total of $123,651.82. This 

 palm is awarded to Kent county by the first 

 official figures of the federal government, 

 which have just been given out. 



The state has 69,206 miles of public road all 

 told. About this extensive mileage the office 

 of public roads of the department of agricul- 

 ture has gathered information which has here- 

 tofore never been compiled. The result has 

 been published in a department leaflet. The 

 figures are gathered for the year 1904. Nor is 

 the information so much out of date after all 

 for the conditions in Michigan are now very 

 far different now than they were in 1904. 



The government's figures show that of the 

 entire mileage 6,777 miles were surfaced with 

 gravel and 248 }/? miles with stone. This makes 

 a total of 7,025'/2 miles of improved road. 

 These figures . show Michigan still offers a 

 pretty big field for the activities of good road 

 advoctes. 



Michigan's total expenditure upon her roads 

 in 1904, including both time and money, was 

 $3,179,787.88. Of this only $111,233 came from 

 the road poll tax, a levy which is not enforced 

 at all in 25 per cent of the counties. The 

 county road tax is collected in seventeen coun- 

 ties and yielded in 1904 a total of $266,546.70. 

 The amount dervied from the township prop- 

 erty tax and expended in money was $1,549,- 

 957.51, while the estimated cash value of the 

 township property tax expended in labor 

 amounted to $1,252,050.67. All told, Michigan 

 spent an average of $45.88 per mile of public 

 road, or $1.31 per inhabitant. Minnesota spent 

 $24.72 per mile, or $1.12 per inhabitant. The 

 little state of Connecticut spent $84.83 per mile, 

 or $1.32 per inhabitant. 



The government's new figures show that 

 Kent county beats all the rest of the state in 

 its mileage of gravel roads and in the total 

 amount which it spends upon its public roads. 

 But one other county is a rival as to length of 



roads, and that is Tuscola. But regarding the 

 claims of that county the officials are doubtful. 



The road figures for the counties of western 

 Michigan for 1904 follow: 



Expen- 



County. Mileage. Gravel. diture. 



Kent '. 1,728 420 $123,651.82 



Ottawa 1,098 180 58,077.47 



Muskegon 884 65 32,632.58 



Allegan 1,500 36S 86,877.89 



Antrim 500 100 23,733.55 



Barry 1,100 100 32,313.77 



Berrien 637 165 56,607.03 



Cass 979 137^ 25,269.10 



Charlevoix 619 91 19,207. :>:: 



Eaton 800 200 74,359.59 



Emmet 801 45 27,502.75 



Grand Traverse 673 174 24,182.87 



Ionia 1,000 100 67,814.18 



Kalamazoo 1,152 250 34,352.21 



Kalkaska 686 14 26,749.26 



Lake 467 116^2 10,741.62 



Manistee 393 22 38,234.68 



Mason 664 30 38,267.05 



Mccosta ...1,050 50 25,206.47 



Montcalm 1,334 44 42,181.70 



Oceana 950 50 37,847.30 



St. Joseph 711 10 33,890.33 



Van Buren 1,353 141 76,571.44 



New Road Material. 



Something firm and hard for a roadbed, that 

 automobiles and heavy wagons cannot destroy, 

 that will not blow away in clouds of dust in 

 the dry season or transform itself into deep, 

 sticky mud in the wet season, and something 

 that will be comparatively inexpensive this is 

 the combination of qualities for which road- 

 makers have sought high and low, and until 

 now have sought in vain. 



Until now. English highway authorities 

 jubilantly exclaim that they believe they have 

 hit upon the real thing in a composition which 

 they call "tarmac," and which ci insists mainly 

 of hot slag of the kind found 'in an iron foun- 

 dry. This is mixed with a toughening com- 

 pound which makes it waterproof, and the 

 result is a road-bed superior to macadam and 

 asphalt, and much cheaper than either. 



This discovery was made by a man who had 

 been experimenting ten years with tar and tar 

 compounds without finding what he was after. 

 Finally he removed his apparatus to an iron 

 foundry and, trying the hot slag from the 

 furnace, found that it worked like a charm. 

 No digging or grading is required beyond the 

 leveling of the surface. Two layers are used, 



the lower being 254 and the upper 1% inches 

 thick. Rolling with a steam roller compresses 

 the thickness to three inches. It is absolutely 

 impervious to water and there is no dust ex- 

 cept what is brought upon it or blown upon it 

 from somewhere else. 



To test the composition a notoriously bad 

 stretch of five miles was spread with the ma- 

 terial. It was one of the main roads of Not- 

 tingham county, either frightfully dusty or al- 

 most impassable from mud the greater part 

 of the time. It is now said to be one of the 

 finest roads in all England. 



Law Must Be Amended. 



That part of the good roads law of Michi- 

 gan of 1905 providing- for a board of county 

 road commissioners for Wayne county has 

 been declared unconstitutional by the supreme 

 court of Michigan. The validity of the act 

 was questioned because the law provided that 

 in Wayne county some of the commissioners 

 were to be appointed by the mayor of De- 

 troit, and for various other reasons. 



The Wayne count)' judges decided months 

 ago that the law was void so far as it relates 

 to Wayne county and refused to grant a man- 

 damus to compel the allowance of the claims 

 of the commissioners appointed under the 

 statute. The decision of the lower court is 

 affirmed, 



The tax levied to carry the law into effect, 

 it is held, must stand or fall by the commis- 

 sioners, but upon the question whether their 

 acts performed under color of law may be 

 sustained, the court expresses no opinion. 



It is said, however, that they are not officers 

 de jure and it is implied that other legislation 

 is necessary in order tot give effect to the 

 law. It is held that the commissioners should 

 be denied the right to disburse the fund that 

 lias been created, and that it is a serious ques- 

 tion whether many of the powers conferred 

 upon the board are not legislative in character. 



The decision coming early as does will 

 enable the legislature to remedy its defects. 



Sand Beach township, Huron county, has 

 defeated the township road system by a ma- 

 jority of 1". A mile of stone road and another 

 of gravel are to be built out of Harbor Beach 

 this year. As soon as the farmer gets a prac- 

 tical demonstration of the value of these roads 

 there is no doubt that Sand Beach township 

 will reverse its decision on the township road 

 system. 



