12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



V A M 



This brand on 

 every sheet. 



None genuine 



without this 



brand 



JTJ "_~ v To those 9O,OOO Taxpayers who want a 



'' ' / Road Culvert Which Can Not Rust 



T^H ROUGH the Agricultural Dep't at Washington, you have made a demand 

 for a rust-resisting material, which you can use for roofing, road culverts, and 

 agricultural purposes. Engineers and Chemists the world over endorse American 

 Ingot Iron as the material you have asked for, and Ingot Iron Pipe as the culvert. 

 You owe it to yourself to investigate the product resulting from your own demand. 

 Write for information regarding Ingot Iron Pipe, the culvert which can not 

 rust, collapse, or be injured by the frost. Address, 



\AII/ 



* * 



V 



Dept. T. 



MICH. BRIDGE & 



PIPE CO., 



LANSING, MICHIGAN 



PLAYING HOB WITH ROAD LAWS. 



In the estimation of State Highway Com- 

 missioner Horatio S. Earle, the joint legisla- 

 tive committee which has been working on the 

 revision of the road laws is playing "hob" with 

 things. 



One thing the "doctoring" has resulted in, 

 thus far, wholly out of harmony with the ideas 

 of Mr. Karle, is the probable change in the 

 township districting. Whereas Commissioner 

 Karle is a champion of the county road sys- 

 tem, on the principle that the larger the unit 

 the more general the standard of roads, 

 whether high or low, the joint committee has 

 planned to reduce the township unit and pro- 

 vide that as many as four road districts may 

 be made out of one township. 



As the law stands now, a township comprises 

 a road district over which the township high- 

 way commissioner is the officer in authority, 

 and the supervision of the roads is with the 

 overseer of highways. 



In registering his objections to the re-dis- 

 tricting proposition, Mr. Earle called attention 

 to the segregation which, he declared, would 

 result from the arrangement of four districts 

 in one township. 



"In one quarter of a township there may be 

 a swamp," he said. "In another there may be 

 fine farms and high property values. In the 

 swamp neighborhood there may be the poorest 

 roads in the township and nothing there of 

 value to tax for the improvement of these bad 

 roads. The residents of the wealthier quarter, 

 while having good roads in their own neigh- 

 borhood, might be compelled to haul their 

 crops to market right through the swamp sec- 

 tion, where roads could never be improved un- 

 der the four-district plan. Taxes from the 

 wealthiest sections ought to be brought to the 

 aid of the poorer sections in building roads." 



FINE ROCK FOR ROAD BUILDING. 



F. B. Spear & Sons, of Marquette, have in- 

 stalled a mammoth rock crushing plant, and 

 have entered the market to supply road build- 

 ers with the best rock on the market, the trap 

 rock of the upper peninsula. The plant will 

 have a capacity of between 300 and 450 tons 

 of rock a day. The firm proposes also to push 

 the trap rock for concrete work. The supply 

 of rock will be drawn from a towering bluff 

 of trap rock near the location of the plant. 

 The supply of rock is practically inexhaustible, 

 and its quality is said to be unusually good 

 for all kinds of street and concrete work. 

 Spear & Sons have had three reports from 

 the federal good roads department in Wash- 

 ington, and in each case the qualities of the 

 rock were unhesitatingly endorsed. It was 

 found by the government tests to be hard, 

 tough, not absorbent of water, and its cement- 

 ing qualities are pronounced excellent. State 

 Highway Commissioner Earle, of Michigan. 

 has assured Spear & Sons that in the light of 

 these reports he has no hesitancy in recom- 

 mending the material for road building. 



SAND AND SAWDUST ROADS. 



During the last few years much interest 

 has been taken in the crusade for good roads, 

 and in many parts of the country model 

 stretches of "highway have been constructed 



by "good roads" commissions to serve as ex- 

 amples to the natives of each locality. Much 

 valuable instruction has been imparted in this 

 manner, but apparently no plan discovered for 

 overcoming the difficulties of road building in 

 a sandy soil. It remained for a Minnesota 

 man to adopt a new method of construction 

 suitable for each condition. 



George W. Cooley, state highway engineer, 

 of Minnesota, has designed a road that is 

 serviceable, in spite of a sandy foundation. 

 A section of this new construction is located 

 at Cambride, in 1'santi county. In this dis- 

 trict there is nothing but yellow sand for a 

 top soil, and 1 it is impossible to preserve a 

 road without adding some other material. He 

 finally decided that sawdust was the compon- 

 ent necessary, and a four-inch layer of this 

 was raked into a stretch of road which had 

 been carefully graded. Passing teams thor- 

 oughly ground together this mixture, and 

 whenever ruts were worn into the surface 

 they were filled with fresh sawdust. The fine 

 particles of wood gradually rot, forming a 

 heavy loam with the sand, and the result is a 

 firm roadbed, suitable for all ordinary traffic. 

 Harper's Weekly. 



MENOMINEE MAKES EARLY START. 



Menominee County Road Commissioners 

 George H. Haggerson, Louis Xadeau and A. A. 

 Juttner have decided to ask for bids for the 

 macadamizing of a mile of the state road from 

 the point where work was finished last year, 

 for two miles, and two and one-half miles of 

 macadamizing on the bay shore road. The 

 bids will be let early and the commisisioners 

 will request the successful contractor to begin 

 immediately. 



Sometime in the near future the three com- 

 missioners are to make an extensive trip 

 through the count}' inspecting different roads 

 and conferring with town supervisors with the 

 view of making much needed minor improve- 

 ments during the summer. 



NO ROAD WORK THIS YEAR. 



Xo work will be done the coming season 

 on the new Munising-Chatham county road 

 for the very good reason that there will be 

 no funds available to pay for it. At the last 

 meeting of the Alger county board of super- 

 visors the decision was reached to submit to 

 the people of this county, at the spring elec- 

 tion next month, a proposition to bond for 

 $90,000, the money to be expended on the 

 county roads. For three weeks notice was 

 given of the vote on the proposed bonding 

 proposition by publication in the county 

 papers. Then it was discovered that the bond- 

 ing proposition could not be submitted this 

 spring, and perhaps not for many springs to 

 come. 



IS ROAD LAW EQUITABLE? 



A correspondent writes to Michigan Roads 

 and Forests as follows: 



The result of two years operation of the law 

 providing for state rewards for the construc- 

 tion of local roads is that but forty-four out of 

 all the counties of the state have availed them- 

 selves of this good road.- bounty. It also ap- 

 pears that the bounties paid have not been at 



all evenly divided even among the forty-four 

 counties. 



Saginaw has received bounties on 31 miles, 

 Tuscola a bad second with IT miles, Manistec 

 third with almost IT miles. Kent fourth with 

 almost I :> miles, Bay filth with over 13 miles, 

 ola sixth with over i-i miK-s. Muskcgon 

 seventh with almost 11 miles, and so on, while 

 the wealthiest county in the- state. Wayne, has 

 but six 'miles to its credit. The total for the 

 44 counties is M4S.T miles. Is this system equit- 

 able?' Will it ever lie that the bounties will 

 lie paid in proportion to the taxes paid there- 

 for by the different counties?' The counties 

 who have contributed to these bounties and 

 have nothing to show for it, may possibly 

 complain that they are unjust. Of course, a 

 system that does not come somewhere near an 

 equitable result cannot, and should not, last. 



I would like to see a full discussion of the 

 matter in your paper. 1 enclose tabulation 

 showing number of miles per county that 

 have been paid for in part by state bounty. 

 This is based on the list in your issue for N'o- 

 vember last. The tabulation shows that the 

 average number of state reward roads per 

 county is 5. Co 3 miles. 



WILL FURNISH ALL THE STONE. 



The Lake Shore Stone Company, of Mil- 

 waukee, was the successful bidder for furnish- 

 ing 9,350 yards of stone for Mnskegon county 

 roads. Six miles of good roads will be built 

 in that county this year. 



A SENSIBLE PLAN. 



The new State Highway Commission of 

 Xew York announces that it expects to adopt 

 the patrol system for the maintenance of state 

 and county highways heretofore improved In- 

 state aid. This will involve the maintenance 

 of a force of some ISO patrolmen, each with 

 a horse and cart and each assigned to look 

 after the repair of a certain number of miles 

 of road. 



This system involves an expense of $iiO a 

 year a mile of road to be repaired. It has 

 been successfully followed out in keeping in 

 condition improved highways in Massachus- 

 etts and in certain foreign countries, and un- 

 der the System the roads are kept to such a 

 state of efficiency that much in the way of 

 expensive repair work is avoided. It is the 

 "stitch in time which saves nine" _on the 

 maintenance of roads. The commission will 

 also study the methods of construction of 

 roads in vogue in other states to secure that 

 be-t adapted to withstand the great damage 

 caused by automobiles. 



The Board of Supervisors of Schoolcraft 

 county have ordered an election, to be held 

 on April 5, to decide the question of the 

 adoption of the county road system. Gogfbic 

 county taxpayers will vote on the same propo- 

 sition the same day. 



Alger county officials have discovered that 

 the county is already bonded to its limit, and 

 the proposition to bond for $90,000 for good 

 road-, which was to have been submitted on 

 April 5, has been withdrawn. 



