14 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



CULVERTS IMPORTANT 



TO GOOD ROADS. 



( I'.y \V. O. Hotchkiss, Madison, Wis.) 



For mcny years we have been swearing at 

 our poor roads each one of us wondering why 

 somebody else didn't get busy and improve 

 them. We have drawn unfavorable compari- 

 sons with the roads of Europe and then ex- 

 cused ourselves by saying that we are a new 

 country. Other excuses are called up when 

 that one doesn't seem to go. 



The whole truth of the matter is that we 

 are just beginning to wake up and find out 

 that it isn't the other fellow who has been to 

 blame for our roads, but ourselves. We are 

 beginning to see that unless each one of us 

 takes a personal interest and does something 

 that nothing much is likely to be done. We 

 have gone on trying to work with the high- 

 way system of the Middle Ages handed down 

 through our New England ancestors a century 

 after other progressive counties had discarded 

 it. We have been trying to fit square pegs 

 into round holes without success and only in 

 recent years have we begun to get sense 

 to know that we must whittle the peg down 

 to fit the hole. 



It is really surprising that until the last few 

 years even ordinarily intelligent people have 

 not known even the most simple principles 

 of road building. It is about the first and 

 most important of these principles that I want 

 to talk on today. Your Highway Commis- 

 s : oner Horatio S. Earle, has expressed it very 

 tersely, "Get the water off, out and away." I 

 want to talk about culverts. 



Culverts are made of many materials. There 

 are wood, tile, concrete, steel and cast iron. 

 Each material has its proper place in culvert 

 making; even wood can properly be used for 

 culverts. 



It should be used in those backwoods 

 towns where they are forty miles from a 

 railroad and can saw their own lumber at an 

 expense of not over $10 a thousand board feet. 

 In any other place a wooden culvert is just 

 a case of that square peg in the round hole. 



A proper aim in all expenditure of money 

 is to get something permanent. When we 

 buy a pair of shoes we are willing to pay a 

 little more for a pair that will wear well. When 

 we build a barn we put a solid foundation 

 under it at an increased expense, if we can 

 afford it, because it will last longer than a barn 

 built on the ground, and we feel we are get- 

 ting our money's worth. 



The public are better able to afford to buy 

 lasting things than individuals are for the 

 simple reason that all of us are richer than 

 any one of us. In building culverts we want 

 to get them in so they will stay; we want per- 

 manent improvements. 



The only materials that we use for culverts 

 that will not rust or rot are stone, tile and 

 concrete. If we put wood in it is only a 

 question of a very few years with the poor 

 lumber we get nowadays before the culvert will 

 have to be replaced. If we use metal culverts 

 it is just the same as with wood, only the time 

 it takes them to rust out is longer than it 

 takes the wooden ones to go. But there are 

 places where metal culverts should perhaps be 

 used in preference to any others. 



Tile culverts should not be used when the 

 water will stand in them for they will freeze or 

 crack, nor close to the road surface where 

 wheels will cut them. Iron culverts should 

 be used only when it is necessary to put in a 

 small culvert close to the road surface and for 

 places where water will stand. 



The best material to build culverts of is con- 

 crete. Many towns in Michigan and Wiscon- 

 sin are blessed with abundant gravel that is 

 often times right at the site waiting to be 



used. It is surprisingly simple and easy and 

 cheap to build small concrete culverts when 

 you once get used t o it. It isn't a very great 

 undertaking to make a square box the size of 

 the waterway you want, dig a trench, put in 

 six inches of concrete, lay the box on the bot- 

 tom you have made and shovel your concrete 

 around and over it to the proper thickness. 

 The difficulty is to get started to building them. 



In order to present arguments to our people 

 over in Wisconsin to show them why they 

 should build more concrete culverts, we got to 

 studying the cost of the various forms of cul- 

 verts and figuring how long they would last. 

 We arranged the results of this study in the 

 table given: 



Cost for 

 100 



Kind Shape Size Cost Years. 



Wooden box, square l.">"sq. $16.80 $252. oo 



Concrete box, square 15"sq. 40.00 40.00 



Cast iron, oval 15" sq. 57.90 97.80 



Cast iron, triangle IS" sq. <>.V25 112.50 



Cast iron, round 18"sq. 92.40 166.80 



Vitrified tile, round 18" sq. 42.00 42.00 



Corrugated steel, round. . .18" sq. 50.40 196.00 

 Circular concrete, round. . 18" sq. 35.00 35.00 



This table is worth careful study, but I will 

 only take the time to call your attention to the 

 last column: "Cost to keep up 100 years." In 

 this column it is assumed that a wooden cul- 

 vert will last seven years, a cast iron pipe 

 fifty, a corrugated steel pipe twenty, tile 100 

 and concrete 100. These allowances are gen- 

 erous to everything but the tile and concrete. 

 If concrete is well laid it is just as good for 500 

 years as for 100, but even with these allow- 

 ances concrete is the cheapest material by far 

 when length of life is considered. 



ROAD OF SAND AND SAWDUST. 



A road made from sand and sawdust is the 

 Infest stvle of roadmaking designed by George 

 W. Cooley, Minnesota state highway engineer. 

 Last spring he made a section of road with clover 

 and rye on a sand foundation. This has been very 

 successful. The road made from sand and saw- 

 dust is at Cambridge, in Isanti county. 



Four inches of sawdust was raked on the sand 

 road after being graded. This was worked into 

 the sand by passing teams, and as fast as ruts 

 were formed the sawdust was raked into the ruts, 

 to be further mixed with sand. This is a new 

 roadmaking material, and if successful will make 

 an exceedingly profitable means of using the im- 

 mense quantities of sawdust from the mills of the 

 state. 



In those counties where there is nothing but 

 sand in the roads, gopd roads are impossible 

 without the addition of other material. Mr. Coo- 

 ley is now experimenting with various means of 

 turning the sand into vegetable loam which can 

 be worked to advantage. The idea is that the 

 sawdust will rot and, mixing with the sand, will 

 form a loam suitable for roads. 



Such a small amount of money is appropriated 

 by Minnesota for the construction of roads that 

 the experiments have been on a limited scale and 

 the construction of roads proceeds slowly. This 

 state spends only one-tenth as much on state 

 roads as does New York in relation to the value 

 of the property. 



Los Angeles county, California, has voted 

 to bond for $3,500,000 for good roads. Michi- 

 gan would be blessed if that amount of money 

 were raised for the entire state. 



statement that the company could have saved 

 $20,000 in the time it has ben operating the 

 Chassell mills had it torn them down when 

 they were purchased and replaced them with 

 more modern structures. 



A finishing mill is to be added, it is said, 

 and a number of other changes are believed 

 to be contemplated by the lumber company. 

 It is evident that the Worcester Lumber Com- 

 pany has no intention of deserting its present 

 field for many years to come. It is probable 

 that the company now has in its possession 

 standing timber sufficient to meet its needs for 

 20 years to come, even should there develop 

 a greatly increased demand for dressed lum- 

 ber. 



The Chassell plant is well located, being 

 in such a position as to afford the best of rail 

 and water advantages. No better site in the 

 upper peninsula could be found for its booms 

 and mills, and if the mills are modernized 

 there will be nothing further which could be 

 done to improve them generally. 



NEW LUMBER COMPANY. 



The National Lumber Company, capital- 

 ized at $40,000, has been organized by C. L. 

 Houseman of Muskegon to handle the lumber 

 manufactured and other interests in Kentucky 

 formerly held by Dennis Bros, of Grand Rap- 

 ids and recently purchased at trustee sale by 

 Mr. Houseman. Mr. Houseman holds $39,800 

 of the stock and R. Perry Shorts of Saginaw 

 and Fanny J. Houseman each $100. 



WILL REBUILD MILLS. 



The Worcester Lumber Company of Chas- 

 sell is contemplating rebuilding its mill in 

 that village and also the mill at Ontonagon. 

 The new mills to be erected will probably be 

 modeled after the Antigo, Wis., mills, which 

 are said to be models. 



The old mill and yards at Chassell are in- 

 convenient, and the McMillan mills at Onton- 

 agon, recently consolidated with the Worces- 

 ter mills, are said to be no better. Because of 

 this fact the manufacture of lumber costs more 

 than the companv believes it should. 



One old lumberman is authority for the 



BIG TIMBER LAND DEAL. 



The deed to 43,497 acres of land has been 

 filed with Register Primeau at Negaunee, the 

 Upper Peninsula Land Company being the 

 grantor, and the I. Stephenson Company, of 

 \ Wells, being cited as the grantee. The sum of 

 |$100,000, and other considerations, was given 

 as the purchase price for the acreage, which is 

 situated in Turin, Wells and Forsyth town- 

 ships, Marquette county. The mineral rights 

 are reserved. 



The transfer of the property, which holds in 

 stumpage much valuable timber, mostly hard- 

 j woods, is made subject to the rights of rail- 

 way, telephone and telegraph companies, and 

 reserves to the land company, its successors 

 and assigns, all iron ore, gold, silver and cop- 

 per ore which the surface or interior of the 

 ground may contain, and the right to enter and 

 dig and explore said grounds without hin- 

 drance, under the terms of which contract the 

 grantor is not liable for damages to the sur- 

 face, nor required to provide for same. The 

 Upper Peninsula Land Company further re- 

 tains the right to mine and carry away any 

 and all ores or metals, for which right they 

 agree to pay a fair value for the use of the sur- 

 face lands, to be determined if necessary by a 

 board of arbitration. 



The transfer, which is attested by William 

 G. Mather for the land company, is one of the 

 most important acreage deals that has been 

 made in the upper peninsula for some time, not 

 only by reason of its magnitude but because 

 the lands are rich in timber, and are said to 

 be fertile as well. 



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424 Detroit Street FLINT, MICHIGAN 



