MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



Here is a Potent Factor in all Good Roads Work 



The Watson bottom Dumping Wagon will be found in the forefront of all road improve- 

 ment. There is no wagon built which can show an equal record in durability and strength. 



The points of superiority in Watson Wagons are so many that we cannot outline them in 

 this space. Send for our new catalog today. Investigate Watson Wagons when you are about to purchase any 

 dumping wagons, for they are first in improved features and proven value. 



\A7eitson \A7eigon Co., Canastota, N. Y. 



Michigan Road flakers' Association. 



W. W. Todd, Jackson, President; P. T. Colgrove, Hastings, First Vice-P resident ; C. C. Rosenbury, Bay City, Second 

 Vice-P resident ; E. N. Hines, Detroit, Secretary; E. B. Smith, Detroit, Treasurer. 



Board of Governors: Royal T. Taylor, Cheboygan; D. L. Case, Detroit; Frank F. Rogers, Lansing; W. W, 

 Trayes, Hancock. 



MACOMB OUT OF IT. 



Macomb county tax-payers will not have a 

 chance to vote on the adoption of the county 

 road system this spring. The supervisors 

 adopted the following: "Resolved, that the 

 petitions in reference to the county road sys- 

 tem be rejected, as it appears that certain of 

 the petitions are defective in not containing the 

 signatures of ten freeholders residing in each 

 of the several organized townships and in- 

 corporated villages and cities of Macomb 

 county." 



LENAWEE'S ROAD MOVEMENT. 



\Ye might profitably devote tne entire even- 

 ing to the consideration of the important sub- 

 ject of good roads. I believe we are all agreed 

 that good roads are an essential and impera- 

 tive need. To encourage agitation of this sub- 

 ject we obtained the services of Hon. H. S. 

 Earle, state highway commissioner, who gave 

 a practical talk at the Croswell opera house, 

 July 27. The Lenawee County Good Roads 

 Club was organized on this occasion and about 

 twenty-live members secured. 



Your board, believing that the building of 

 a piece of sample road would be the most 

 effective way of demonstrating the practical 

 value of good roads, decided to build one mile 

 of gravel road, and I, as your secretary, was 

 instructed to proceed with the work. After 

 making several trips into the country, I recom- 

 mended the rebuilding of one mile on South 

 Main street, about three miles south of the 

 corporation line. A survey was made and 

 recorded with the highway commissioner, but 

 not in time to complete the work under settled 

 weather conditions. The work will be begun 

 as early this spring as practicable. 



T believe that the subject of good roads is 

 one entitled to our serious consideration and 

 earnest endeavor in practical work. Secretary 

 W. O. Palmer, in report to Adrian Industrial 

 Association. 



WILL BUY ROCK CRUSHER. 



At the annual winter meeting of the Mcno- 

 minee county road commissioners and the 

 county road committee it was decided to 

 further the work of bettering roads by the 

 purchase of a rock crusher costing $2,500, six 

 dump wagons and a number of wheel scrapers. 

 At the last session of the county board the 

 supervisors passed favorably on the purchase 

 of a rock crusher, several of the members de- 

 claring that at times it was impossible to 



secure the needed supply of crushed stone 

 while the road improving was in progress. 

 Those in attendance at the meeting were 

 Supervisors W. J. Oberdorffer, A. F. McGillis, 

 T. C. Christensen, Peter Garrigan, George H. 

 Haggerson, Louis Nadeau and E. P. Radford, 

 the latter a member of both bodies. 



GRANGE AGAINST COUNTY ROAD 

 SYSTEM. 



The Owosso Grange, Shiawassee county, is 

 on record against the county system of good 

 roads. By a vote of seventeen to five the 

 proposed improvement got a black eye. There 

 are some modifications, however. Not all 

 those present voted; some who had been at 

 the meeting earlier in the afternoon had gone 

 away; the ladies were permitted to vote, and 

 a number of them voted against the proposi- 

 tion, while none voted for it; and Overseer 

 Fred W. Love explained before the vote was 

 taken that the grange was not bound by 

 the action in any way, since the vote was 

 simply the expression of personal preference 

 as it exists at the present time. 



The vote was taken late in the day, after 

 an interesting and at times heated discussion. 

 John W. Thorn, of Owosso, a member of the 

 grange, was the first speaker. He declared 

 himself in favor of a system that will put our 

 roads in good condition. He said that forty- 

 eight hours after the last meeting a heavy 

 rain took all the frost out of the ground, with 

 the result that the roads were hub deep. He 

 quoted Dr. Eldred, of Chesaning, as saying 

 that the county road system in Saginaw 

 is a success, and that the people there would 

 not under any conditions go back to the old 

 order of affairs. 



He remarked that he has a farm north of 

 Owosso, and that if an improved state road 

 is built past that farm from Owosso to the 

 Rush township line, he will not only gladly 

 pay his two-mill tax, but he will give a hun- 

 dred dollars in addition. There was consid- 

 erable applause at this statement. 



"Now, I don't want to be personal," said 

 Mr. Thorn, "but there is a gentleman here 

 (he referred to W. S. Carson, who is said 

 to be against the county road system) whose 

 place I had occasion to pass recently. There 

 was a lake eight or ten rods across in front 

 of his place, and I called his attention to it. 

 A little ditch six feet long would have let 

 the water off, but there it stood. 



"Yet they say that the farmers are good 



road builders! Did you ever know a farmer 

 to build more road, or do more road work 

 than he had to? 



"If the road law isn't a good law, let's have 

 a better one, but don't let us turn against 

 public improvement. We should send out a 

 committee from this grange to investigate the 

 condition in other counties, and report what 

 people where the system exists think of the 

 county road system." 



\Y. S. Carson declared that he was in favor 

 of good roads and was willing to have them 

 built. It wasn't necessary to adopt the county 

 road system to get them, however, in his 

 opinion. 



MAY BUY TRACTION ENGINE. 



Illinois road makers say that the cost of 

 hauling rock from the cars to where it is used 

 has been reduced from ninety to twenty cents 

 per cubic yard by the use of traction engines 

 instead of teams, on a haul of three miles. 

 The cost of hauling crushed rock with team.; 

 on the Marquette county roads has been about 

 twenty-five cents per mile, which corresponds 

 pretty closely to the Illinois figures. The en- 

 gines in use in that state are able to haul 

 two wagons at a trip, each loaded with from 

 eight to ten tons of rock. The engines i ravel 

 two and one-half miles an hour, or a half 

 mile faster than the average team can walk. 

 Of course, the roads in Illinois are level, and 

 such good results might not be obtained in 

 a hilly country. Superintendent of Roads H;M- 

 yer, of Marquette, is enthusiastically in favor 

 of trying out an engine on the Harvey- 

 Greengarden road, to be built next summer, 

 and says that the county board has the mat- 

 ter of purchasing one for that purpose seri- 

 ously under consideration. 



State Deputy Highway Commissioner F. F. 

 i Rogers praises the road work done by the 

 | village of Shelby, and says that there is not 

 another town in Michigan of the same size 

 where all the streets are in as good condition 

 as in Shelby and the connecting roads as 

 good and with sand piles to make them on. 

 The highway commissioners of Berrien 

 county have unanimously endorsed Commis- 

 sioner Earle's recommendation of an annual 

 tax on each automobile owned and used in 

 the state of Michigan. The resolution was 

 introduced by Highway Commissioner F. A. 

 Tichnor, of Niles township, and was passed 

 by a unanimous vote. 



