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 MERCIAN CO., 



43-44 Peninsular Bank Building, 

 Phone Main 6251 DETROIT 



MICHIGAN ROAD NOTES. 



"A stale that will exact a license tax from 

 automobilists. adding it to the state road fund 

 and then take money out of the fund to re- 

 plenish tile general treasury depleted by the 

 extravagances of an administration, is like the 

 man \vlio buys a paper from a poor little 

 newsboy and then steals the two cents." Thus 

 former Highway Commissioner 11. S. Farlc 

 expresses bis opinion of the state of Michigan, 

 with reference to the recent treasury shortage 

 and the draw made upon the road fund. Not 

 entirely .satisfied with this characterization 

 Mr. F.arlc went further and said: "Michigan 

 is the only state in the union that has done 

 such a thing and therefore it is the smallest 

 state in the union." The ex-commissioner 

 points with pride to his little record book for 

 keeping tab on applications for state roads 

 and chuckles over the total of 582 applications 

 during his conduct of the department. 



The county board. of road commissioners of 

 Delta county received three bids for macad- 

 amizing portions of the bay shore and the 

 Hark river roads. Three bids were received 

 and that of the Solid Rock Paving and Con- 

 struction Company was accepted. The bids 

 were as follows: Solid Rock Paving and Con- 

 struction Company, bay road, $6,379; Bark 

 river road. $9,19"). Delta Construction Com- 

 pany, bay road, $8,209.45; Mark river road, 

 $10,404. Northern Construction and F.ngi- 

 neiring Company, bay road, $7,:i.'!3.72; Bark 

 river road, $9,413.90. 



price paid is higher than that paid for t In- 

 road constructed last year, but gravel musi 

 be hauled farther. The road is lo be com- 

 pleted by September 1. 



build about live miles of state reward road this 

 season. 



The petition of Stcphciison township to the 

 board of supervisors of Menominee county 

 for a road from Koss to \Yansaukcc bridge 

 died a violent death by a vote of 10 to s. 

 Strong pleas for the building of the road were 

 made by Supervisors ( )berdorffer, Randall and 

 Radford, and equally strong arguments 

 against it were made by Supervisors Lowitz, 

 Swaii.son and Sorenson. The road in <|ii< 

 would be about eight miles in length, and 

 many of the supervisor-, could not see the 

 benefit of putting the county to such a greai 

 expense for the little benefit that would be 

 derived from it. 



Fred Usewick. one of the county road com- 

 missioners of Wexford. has been pushing work 

 on the mile of road from the Tindall hill north 

 of Sherman. The center of the road toward 

 the north end was near standing timber, so 

 that it was necessary to cut down a strip about 

 two rods wide for some distance and take oui 

 the stumps, which added very much to the 

 work to be done on this mile. 



County Road Commissioner W. B. Lyons 

 lias completed the first mile of state reward 

 county road in Mecosta county. He expects 

 to complete five additional miles of road be- 

 fore the season closes. 



The Wayne county road commissioners have 

 comoleted a mile of state reward road north 

 of Highland Park village. 



Xewton township. Calhoun county, is going 

 to build two additional miles of state reward 

 gravel road this summer. It will be a con- 

 tinuation of the Beadle lake road, four miles 

 of which were improved last year. 



Gerrish township. Roscommon county, will 

 expend $15,000 on good roads in its territory. 



Marshall township. Calhoun county, will 

 build two miles of road this year. 



John M. Mclntyre, of Sheridan township. 

 Hunm county, lias secured the contract For 

 building two miles of state road in the north- 

 western part of Klkland township. Tii-cola 

 county. The contract price is $2.990. Tin 



Linus Wolcott, of Burton; William Meeker, 

 of Fenton, and George Sellers, of G'-nescc. 

 were; named as Genesee county's first county- 

 road commission by the board of supervixn .-. 

 The new commissioners will serve until the 

 next general election, which is a year from 

 next April. The members of the commission 

 will receive $250 a year for their services. 

 which is payable quarterly. A plan advanced 

 by the board is that an expert road-builder be 

 engaged at a salary, to have direct charge fo 

 the work, under the advisement of the board. 

 The commission will hold a meeting soon and 

 will organize and plan the work to be done 

 next year in order that the supervisors at 

 their session this fall may apportion the tax. 

 The selection of the commission and the other 

 matters which arose pertaining to good roads 

 received earnest attention at the hands of the 

 supervisors. The universal sentiment seemed 

 to be that the work should be planned and 

 the tax levied, so that improvement might be 

 begun as soon as possible. Nothing was said 

 by the supervisors as to the reads which in 

 their opinion should be first built. 



The question of better roads in and leading 

 into Chesaning is agitating the minds of the 

 councilmen of that village. Mayor Johnson 

 says that the village has had the road leading 

 south to the pine tree on the cemetery road 

 surveyed and plans are being inaugurated for 

 the improvement of the road. Mr. Johnson 

 says it has long been delayed and must surely 

 be" put in good order this summer. 



The county road commissioners of May 

 county have announced the following commit- 

 tees: Ways and Means Commissioners 

 Fletcher, Lints, Schweinsbcrg. Claims and 

 Accounts Commissioners Chat field. Fletcher, 

 Lints. Construction Commissioners Lints. 

 Chatlk-ld, Schweinsbcrg. Committee on Roads 

 Commissioner Campbell. Midland. Auburn. 

 Garlield. Fishcrville. State street. North Eu- 

 clid; Commissioner Fletcher, Tuscola. Ports- 

 mouth, llotchkiss. Pinconning. Gibson: Com- 

 missioner Lints, Kawkawlin. X. Kawkawlin, 

 .\u Sable. Fischer. Beaver. Linwood; Commis- 

 sioner Scliweinsberg. I'rankerdust. S. F.uclid. 

 Salzburg. Flm. State road, Frazer, Saginaw: 

 Commissioner Chat field. Quanniccassee, 

 Knight. Hampton. N. Hampton. Fine. Sanilac, 

 Merrill. The commissioner- have agreed to 



The Delta county road commissioners, con- 

 sisting of John Gasman, chairman: II. W. Reid 

 and Frick Anderson, has awarded the contract 

 for the construction of 5,792 feet of road in 

 the village of Bark River to the Solid Rock 

 Paving and Construction Company for the 

 sum of $4,190. It was agreed that the com- 

 missioner- would pay the engineering ex- 

 penses of laying out. making profiles, etc., of 

 the two miles to be built in Escanaba town- 

 ship. 



GOOD ROAD BUILDING. 



Excavate road bed for new road as in gen- 

 eral practice, grading as usual. Lay a line of 

 best four-inch to six-inch drain tile in center, 

 through entire length of road and below but- 

 torn of road bed, say 8 to 12 inches. Put in 

 frequent tile lateral drains to ditches to dis- 

 pose of all water rapidly as it collects, says a 

 writer in Cincinnati Honk-Honk. 



Perfect drainage of road bed is of vital im- 

 portance. Cover entire bottom of road bed 

 with one inch of one and one-half inch chest- 

 nut boards laid crosswise. When the road is 

 boggy better use two-inch chestnut plank to 

 insure greater stability. 



Then by best known method, place on top 

 of boards a layer of broken -tone say three 

 inches or four inches, levelling and rolling' 

 moderately and crushing stone flat. Place on 

 top of stone a layer of coarse concrete of 

 usual thickness and level and roll hard ami 

 fairly smooth, with a crowning surface. 



As-nming the road bed thus made to be 11 

 feet in width at surface, then lay two lines of 

 old (standard size) railroad rails 10 feet apart 

 and resting upon flat tie bars, say three-fourth 

 of an inch by three inches, with two lugs upon 

 tipper side and at each side of bars or ties to 

 hold line of rails rigidly in place and prevent 

 their turning over. These are retaining rails 

 or curbs. Tie bars to be placed under rails 

 from S feet to 10 feet apart as may be deter- 

 mined. The rails are to be connected end- 

 wise as in railroad use. 



The Swedish government has appointed a 

 tariff commission in preparation for a thor- 

 ough revision of the tariff in 1910. 



Although Mexico has an enormous cattle 

 industry the country is very short on dairy 

 products. Butter from Topeka and Abilene, 

 Kan., 500 to 1,800 pounds a week, .is sold by 

 three American groceries in Mexico city. 

 Cheese from Pennsylvania is also freely sold. 

 In Mexico city today one of the trying ques- 

 tion's is the scarcity, quality, and dearness of 

 milk and its sanitary condition, as well as the 

 methods of its production and sale. In the 

 interior towns for weeks at a time not a pound 

 of Mexican cheese is found on the market, and 

 when found it is poor in quality. In the whole 

 country there is a good field for American 

 dairy products, the imports of which have 

 doubled in three years from $1,570,077 in 1905 

 to $3.100,591 in 1908. 



In 1908 fiscal year Mexico made $123,285,312 

 kilos (kilo equals 2.2 pounds) of sugar, 70,- 

 947,573 kilos of molasses, and 50,000,000 kilos 

 of panela. 



