8 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MICHIGAN 



ROADS AND FORESTS 



Official Paper of The Michigan Road Makers Association and 

 Michigan Forestry Association. 



70 Lamed Street West, Detroit, Michigan. 



Entered as Second-class Matter April 27, 1907, at the Post Office at De- 

 troit, Michigan, under the Act of Congress of March J, 1879. 



Frank E. Carter Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 

 THE STAfE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., 



SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



CONSERVATION AND COMMERCE. 



The First National Conservation Congress of 

 the United States will be held in the Auditorium 

 of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 

 Washington, August 2, 27, 28, 1909. Arrange- 

 ments for the congress are being perfected by 

 the Washington Conservation Association, an 

 organization comprising several hundred prom- 

 inent men of the state. The Conservation Con- 

 gress promises to be the largest and most rep- 

 resentative gathering of active conservationists 

 since the conference of governors at the White 

 House, Washington, when former President The- 

 odore Roosevelt launched the campaign for a 

 more systematic and universal conservation of 

 the natural resources of our country. 



"How shall the conservation of our natural 

 resources be conducted so that business of the 

 present day shall receive the greatest proper ben- 

 efits?" This is the question presented by the 

 Washington Conservation Association, and the 

 congress of practical, executive, professional and 

 commercial men will be expected to answer in 

 a manner satisfactory to the allied interests of 

 the people. The discussions will include the 

 subjects of Irrigation, Dry Farming, Forestry, 

 Mining, Transportation, Good Roads, Pure Food, 

 Public Morals and Health, and the Relation of 

 Capital to Labor in the work of modern con- 

 servatism. 



spection (if the state lands in Wexford county 

 lias been made in behalf of the state preliminary 

 to offering; them for sale to the highest bidder," 

 says County Treasurer Wheeler. "It would be 

 a good thing for the county in several ways," 

 continued Mr. Wheeler, "if these lands could be 

 sold at once. There arc about ten thousand 

 aeres not yet being complete. To have these ten 

 thousand acres put on the tax list, to have them 

 improved and to become of live value to the 

 county rather than to remain a dead weight, is 

 why it is desirable from the Wexford county 

 point of view to have them sold as soon as pos- 

 sible." County Treasurer Wheeler also agreed 

 with State Land Commissioner Huntley that it 

 would be best for the county and best for the 

 state to have the sale held in Cadillac rather than 

 in Lansing. 



county road system, which, it is said, may cause 

 trouble, especially as the act provides for the 

 raising of taxes. There is. however, some ques- 

 tion as to what the courts will say regarding tin- 

 word and some state officials believe the act will 

 stand. 



If, however, the court should hold that the 

 whole act applies only to such counties as have 

 adopted the county road system, as it reads, the 

 whole highway system of the state might be en- 

 dangered, it is said. 



IMPORTED TREES AFFECTED. 



The discovery of a plant disease known as 

 "European current rust" or "blister rust," in a 

 number of white pine trees imported from Ger- 

 many, which have been used for reforesting land 

 in New York and a number of the New England 

 states, was the subject of the conference at the 

 office of State Forest, Game and Fish Commis- 

 sioner Whipple of New York State. Those pres- 

 ent included forest experts from New York, New 

 Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, 

 New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, as well as 

 representatives of the national forest service. 

 Prompt efforts will be made to eradicate the 

 disease which has proved fatal to large tracts of 

 forests in Europe, but which has never gained a 

 foothold in this country. 



At the close of the conference, the following 

 statement was issued : 



"The trees affected, so far as reported, have 

 come from a single nursery in Germany, and as it 

 is known where the trees have been planted, it 

 should be comparatively easy to take care of the 

 trouble, if properly attended to." 



"My attention is called to the fact that an in- 



MUST WATCH NEW ROAD LAW. 



"The new road law has changed things so 

 much that just now," says a prominent Isabella 

 county farmer, "big mistakes are being made in 

 our road policy. But if we only keep our heads 

 and adapt our plans to the new way in a few 

 years it will be away ahead" of the old plan. The 

 difficulty just now is that by the time the new 

 highway commissioner, elected in April, gets into 

 office and sizes things up it's so far along into sum- 

 mer that work started by him grading roads turns 

 up a big lot of grassy sod. Our township will 

 have to get to the point of plowing in the fall 

 for any proposed grading the following spring 

 and then be ready to do the work right without 

 so much grassy sod." 



Much talk has been heard about the Grant 

 township state award road built on the Dover 

 road last summer, says a Mt. Pleasant corre- 

 spondent. It has been alleged that the blame is 

 due to quality of gravel and some reflection has 

 been cast oh all associated with it. But according 

 to good authority the condition of this mile of 

 ne\v road this spring requiring repairs is due to 

 two facts. In the first place the season last fall 

 was extremely dry. No water fell to provide for 

 cementing the gravel. But traffic over it was per- 

 mitted. Every team over it stirred up the dust 

 and the wind carried it away to the fields, leav- 

 ing practically no lime to cement the gravel when 

 the rains did come. Hence in winter and spring 

 heavy loads readily cut through the loose un- 

 cemented gravel. A second cause is that grading 

 matter for the deeper fills was extremely dry and 

 did not settle till many months after when the 

 heavy spring rains came. 



AFRICA PUTS US TO SHAME. 



In his entertaining report on Uganda for the 

 year 1907-8, the governor, Sir H. Hesketh Bell, 

 gives a good account of the progress made with 

 road construction in the protectorate. 



A great road connecting Lake Victoria and 

 Lake Albert is partly constructed and motors 

 are already running over half its length. The 

 governor records that whereas a year ago it took 

 him six days to traverse 104 miles of it, he did 

 the same journey recently by motor in seven 

 hours. 



"By the construction of good metalled roads," 

 observes Sir Henry, "and the use of motor 

 wagons, the distressing system of human por- 

 terage may soon become a thing of the past. The 

 natives of Uganda will cease to act as beasts 

 of burden, and will be in a position to turn their 

 attention to the cultivation of the soil and the 

 development of their country's resources." 



PICKING FLAWS IN GOOD ROADS ACT. 



Now, it is claimed, the voluminous new state 

 highway act has been found to contain a weak 

 spot. This was termed by the Michigan legisla- 

 ture a codification of all highway acts of the 

 state, although the state has never had good suc- 

 cess with that class of lawmaking. In manufac- 

 turing it whole sections and acts pertaining to 

 this part of the state's activity were taken bodily 

 for use in the new law. Among them was the 

 act in regard to counties which have adopted the 

 county road system containing a provision that 

 no portion of the act should apply except to coun- 

 ties which had voted to adopt that system. Un- 

 fortunately some one neglected to change the 

 word "act" to "section" and now the law is said 

 to read that no portion of the act shall apply to 

 any except counties which have adopted the 



CONVICT ROAD-BUILDING. 



The use of convicts on road construction is re- 

 ceiving considerable attention in a number of 

 states, and it is apparent that before long this 

 method of utilizing the enforced labor of able- 

 bodied men will be regarded with greater favor 

 than it is at present. There are two decided ad- 

 vantages in making use of coirvict labor on high- 

 way construction. The first of these is that a 

 large number of men are imprisoned for short 

 terms and it is impracticable to teach them any 

 trade during such a brief period, even in those 

 states where trades are taught in the penitenti- 

 aries. It is much better to keep these men in 

 active, useful work than in idleness or engaged 

 on -mental tasks which are manifestly set merely 

 to keep -them busy. 



The second advantage of convict labor of this 

 sort is that roads can be obtained in this way 

 at a low cost which otherwise would not be con- 

 structed for some years. The work can be done 

 under competent inspectors, with authority to 

 make such trials of new systems of construction 

 as the authorities who pay for the work con- 

 sider advisable. By following out this plan the 

 experimental work will be entirely apart from 

 regular construction and can be conducted under 

 the best of conditions for insuring a thoroughly 

 satisfactory test. There is a general objection to 

 the use of convicts on roads, due to the aversion 

 of having them in the neighborhood of settled 

 districts, but it has been observed that where 

 they are so employed this feeling of distrust soon 

 wears away. The prisoners employed on such 

 work are generaly men serving short terms, who 

 are aware that an effort to escape will result in 

 such serious consequences to themselves that it 

 is much better for them to serve out their terms 

 creditably. 



