12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



Lake Superior 



Genuine 



TRAP ROCK 



For Road Making and Fireproof Con- 

 crete. 



Rail and Lake Shipments. 



Write for prices. 



MARQUETTE STONE CO., 



Marquette, Mich. 



ROAD BUILDERS WANTED. 



Many different localities throughout Michi- 

 gan are writing the State Highway Depart- 

 ment, asking for names and addresses of con- 

 tractors and practical road builders who can 

 and will enter into a contract, or will take 

 charge of and superintend the building of 

 state roads. All persons who desire to make 

 contracts, or wish to be employed as super- 

 intendents, should send their names and ad- 

 dresses to the State Highway Department, 

 Lansing, Mich. 



Best Road Material 



OUR HOBBY 



Crushed Granite and Gravel 



SCREENED TO SUIT 



WRITE US 



THE HENRY MERDIAN CO., 



43-44 Peninsular Bank Building;, 

 Phone Main 6251 DETROIT 



GERMAN AND AMERICAN HIGHWAYS. 



The following information concerning the 

 superiority of the highways of Germany as 

 compared with those in the United States is 

 furnished by Consul Robert J. Thompson, of 

 Hanover: 



Perhaps Germany is not more noted for 

 the excellence of its roads than any other of 

 several European countries, but it is not an 

 extravagant statement to say that one never 

 sees in any of the American Western states 

 a country road as good as the poorest to be 

 found here. While this is due principally to 

 the scientific building and maintenance of 

 public roads in Europe, it is, perhaps, likewise 

 attributable in equal degree to the restriction 

 of the highways to a reasonable and worka- 

 ble width. 



German roads are perhaps subjected to a 

 hundred times more traffic than similar roads 

 in the United States. These roads range 

 from 20 to 30 feet in width, while in our 

 Middle or Western states, where the traffic 

 is comparatively light, we take land of an 

 average value of $100 per acre and cut it up 

 with roadways 66 feet in width, practically 

 two-thirds of the same being given over to 

 weeds, which furnish an inexhaustible supply 

 of seeds for the adjoining farm lands: The 

 farmer in Germany who has conquered the 

 weeds on his ground need have no thought of 

 their being started again from uncultivated or 

 uncared-for land along the roadways. There 

 are no weeds, no mud or chuck holes, no 

 sand stretches in the roads. Looking into the 

 valleys from one of the thousands of lookout 

 towers which have been placed on the sum- 

 mit of nearly every high elevation of land or 

 mountain in Germany, the roads lie before 

 one's view like bright white ribbons running 

 past squares of green or brown fields, along 

 the verges of cultivated woods, and binding 

 village to village a solution of the first and 

 most important problem of human economy 

 and evolution, that of transportation. 



It is not an infrequent sight, when traveling 

 by rail through the more level stretches ot 

 country in Germany, France, or Holland, to 

 see an automobile flying over some main 

 highway running parallel with the railroad, 

 easily keeping pace with the train for miles, 

 it being generally necessary to slacken speed 

 only when passing through the larger villages 

 and towns, and never on account of poor 

 roads. 



The good-roads question for the United 

 States may seem almost hopeless when con- 

 sidered with such pictures before the eye, but 

 one of the simplest and most practical mea- 

 sures that could be taken for their betterment 

 would be to reduce their width to from one- 

 third to one-half of what they now are. Work 

 could then be concentrated on the roadway 

 and drains, the waste land returned to the 

 farmers or abutting property owners, and by 

 these perfectly natural economies make both 

 the building and maintenance of the roads a 

 much simpler and less expensive proposition. 



No road can be called really good if it is 

 bordered with weeds or mud, and to care for 

 and keep up a road from 60 to 70 feet in 

 width, not to mention the loss of land, means 

 in the long run nearly double the expense of 



a 30 or 35 foot road. The Prussian law spe- 

 cifically states that unnecessary width shall 

 be avoided on account of the cost of land 

 and the greater expense of construction and 

 maintenance. 



The average width of the chaussee or high- 

 way of the first-class in Prussia is approxi- 

 mately 30 feet, and this width has been found 

 to be ample for all purposes. In the United 

 States, public highways in the states given 

 below may be conservatively estimated as fol- 

 lows, in miles, the data for .Minnesota, Wis- 

 o iiMii. and Michigan being official: Minne- 

 sota, 80,000; Wisconsin. (10.000; Michigan, 

 60.000; Iowa, 70,000; Kansas. 70,000; Ne- 

 braska, 50,000; Missouri, 80,000; Illinois, 80,- 

 000; Indiana, 70,000; Ohio, 80,000; total. 

 700,000. 



Reducing the width of these public high- 

 ways, which now average 66 feet, to 36 feet, 

 leaving them still much wider than the high- 

 ways of Prussia, would give back to the 

 farmers of those states, for cultivation, 2,500,- 

 000 acres of generally tillable land, which, at 

 an average valuation of $100 per acre, would 

 mean the restoration to the producing values 

 of the states named $250,000,000. This sum 

 has an annual interest value of $12,500,000, 

 an amount which might be recovered, and, if 

 applied to the proper scientific construction 

 of roads in the United States would in a few- 

 years give us the most extensive and finest 

 country road system in the world. 



began May 1. Two contracts for the repair- 

 ing "f county roads were let, both to Robert 

 Rick. One is for the rebuilding of the state 

 ro.ul, the amount for which is $2,700, and the 

 other is for the repairing of six miles of the 

 main road. 



GOOD ROADS NOTES. 



John Gasman of Bark River has been re- 

 elected chairman of the county road commis- 

 sion of Delta county. The commission has 

 decided to complete the macadamizing of the 

 Bark River road this season. The uncompleted 

 section is only one mile, and when this is 

 finished the road between Escanaba and Me- 

 nominee will be in splendid condition all the 

 way. 



The big stone crusher purchased by the 

 Me nominee county road commission during 

 the winter has been delivered at Menominee. 

 The several patent dump wagons ordered at 

 the same time have also arrived. The stone 

 crusher is of an improved pattern. It will do 

 work that other types could not begin to do, 

 and will in every way till the bill for county 

 road work. A total of $20,000 will be spent by 

 the road commission the present year in Me- 

 nominee county. 



Xels S. Johnson has been elected county 

 road commissioner of Schoolcraft county. 



County Road Commissioner Hines, of 

 Wayne county, says: "We are sorry for the 

 piece of bad road complained of on Grand 

 River avenue; but the fact is it is inside tin- 

 city limits of Detroit and we have no jurisdic- 

 tion over it. We've been bending our energies 

 to the road beyond Highland Park ever since 

 the spring flood got off it, and will have it fin- 

 ished in good season for summer driving- 

 events at the fair grounds. 



The village of Decatur and township boards 

 acting through its committee consisting of A. 

 E. Lawrence, J. E. Goble and C. Lindsley have 

 bought a road roller which has been filled 

 with concrete and weighs about 10,000 pounds. 

 While this move alone will not bring good 

 roads it is a good step in advance of anything 

 that has been done in the village or township. 

 The good roa'ds leaven is working-, however, 

 and the result will be apparent next year. 



The board of Portage township. Houghton 

 county, has been petitioned to build two new 

 highways this year. 



"Once this stretch is improved and the 

 board gives assurance that it will be finished 

 this year, what is declared is the longest 

 stretch of good road in the United States will 

 be 'completed. Other states can produce 

 stretches of finer road of perhaps ten miles 

 or fifteen miles in length, but a road of sixty 

 miles and which is paved with gravel or ma- 

 cadam possibly cannot be found outside of 

 the northern peninsula," says our Escanaba 

 correspondent. 



Ironwood township, Gogebic county, has 

 purchased a ten-ton roller. The ponderous 

 machine is propelled by a gasoline engine. 

 Ironwood township now has a complete road- 

 making outfit, including a No. 3 gyratory 

 crusher, and the towns-hip officials expect to 

 construct a section of state reward macadam 

 road during the coming summer. 



The county road commissioners of Menom- 

 inee has organized. G. A. Haggerson, Louis 

 Xadeau and A. A. Juttner are the commis- 

 sioners. Mr. Haggerson was appointed chair- 

 man. Mr. Juttner is a new member. He was 

 elected in February and his term of office 



Due to the energy of the board of public 

 works, the city of Iron Mountain will .soon 

 have one of the best road construction plants 

 in the state, if not in the west. The plant in- 

 cludes a large deposit of rock suitable for pav- 

 ing purposes, a large stationary stone crush- 

 ing outfit, a powerful steam roller, a steam 

 road locomotive, a train of rock cars, sprink- 

 lers, graders, etc. The stone quarry is located 

 about one mile to the south of the city, near 

 the Menominee river. The deposit is practi- 

 cally inexhaustible and the rock, largely trap, 

 is well suited for the construction of high- 

 ways. The crusher plant has been erected at 

 the quarry. The machine is guaranteed to 

 crush from twenty to fifty tons of rock per 

 hour, depending upon the size of material. It 

 is expected that between $10.000 and $15.000 

 will be expended in street improvements, not 

 including cement walks, during the season. 



Bay county's board of county road commis- 

 sioners has organized, Commissioner 

 Schweinsberg continuing in the seat he has 

 occupied for the past two years. Hugh Camp- 

 bell was again selected as chairman and John 

 H. Blomshield succeeds himself as the com- 

 mission's engineer. 



