10 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



IF YOU WANT 



GOOD ROADS 



BUILD 'EM WITH THE 



Port Huron Dumping and Spreading Wagons 



AND ROLL 'EM WITH THE 



Port Huron Road Roller 



Write us for Ways to Save Money in Road Building 



Port Huron Engine & Thresher Co., 



NEED TO STUDY ROAD LAWS. 



The township highway commissioner and the 

 law in relation to each other, comprises a sub- 

 ject that keeps State Highway Commissioner Ely 

 busy during the warm weather. According to 

 the commissioner 60 per cent of the highway 

 commissioners in the different townships of the 

 state are newly elected, having taking office this 

 spring. They are mostly farmers and uninform- 

 ed as to the road laws. Then, there is the new 

 revised law passed by the recent legislature, to 

 go into effect in September. They want to know 

 about that. 



"The average highway commissioner is a 

 farmer," says Commissioner Ely. "He works all 

 day and at night is tired. Sundays he wants to 

 rest and visit with his family. If he wants to 

 know something about the law he gets his oldest 

 daughter, who is a school ma'am, to write a let- 

 ter to the department.- Well, our best method 

 of answering his question is to send a copy of 

 the statute and refer to the section containing the 

 portion inquired about. The greatest drawback 

 we have to contend with right now is that we 

 have no individual copies of the law. The form 

 of the bill is too bulky. We are, however, hav- 

 ing the law printed in a more condensed form for 

 mailing out to the supervisors." 



The recent road law compiled by the joint com- 

 mittee on roads and bridges from the senate and 

 house during the last session, forms a new com- 

 prehensive and correlated revision done at the 

 expense of great pains and labor by the revisors. 

 There are, too, many new features of the law 

 which it is essential the township highway com- 

 missioners should be posted on. 



that vicinity. A fine job was done on this cause- 

 wav. 



Port Huron, Mich. 



vincing style by members if both delegations. 

 Surveys of both east and west side roads are 

 being made. 



ROAD IS ACCEPTED. 



F. F. 'Rogers, deputy state highway commis- 

 sioner, after inspecting the mi'le of crushed stone 

 improvement just completed on the Blooming 

 Valley raod in Oceana county, said : 



"You have my authority for the statement that 

 the road is satisfactory and meets all the require- 

 ments for approval and State reward. It is 

 one of the best roads built in the vicinity. The 

 Shelby officials have wisely used more material 

 than is the custom but it will add much to the 

 permanency of the road and is money well in- 

 vested." 



This road is to be continued another mile and 

 a half to the Ferry line this year. 



FIVE MILES OF NEW ROAD. 



At a recent meeting of the Delta county road 

 commission a resolution was passed directing the 

 county clerk to advertise for bids for building 

 about five miles of road in Sections 7, 18, li) 

 and 30, Town 43, Range 21, this being in the 

 north end of the county near Trenary. The suc- 

 cessful bidder will be required to have the road 

 completed this fall. 



Work on the county roads in Wexford is pro- 

 gressing rapidly. The Wexford road is being- 

 graveled ; the Selma road has been graded and is 

 ready for the top dressing ; Commissioner Use- 

 wick has a crew grading the Cedar Creek mile, 

 and the stumps have been pulled preparatory for 

 grading on the Cherry Grove road. 



KNOWS HIS BUSINESS. 



Home township, Montcalm county, has one of 

 the best road commissioners in the state in John 

 McCarthy. He was first elected to office seven 

 years ago, and he has built more good roads 

 than all his predecessors put together. Mr. Mc- 

 Carthy puts his whole soul into the work. He 

 studies the situation and when he improves a 

 piece of road he does not pile up land for a 

 top dressing. Clay or gravel is used from a 

 near-by hill and the outcome is that the township 

 is getting some good roads which are a credit 

 to it. 



Thus far this year Mr. McCarthy has expended 

 about $1,000 out of the $1,800 voted last spring 

 for highway improvements. He has done some 

 work in the vicinity of Cedar Lake, improved a 

 causeway in the Dane settlement, covered 80 

 rods of causeway one mile south and one mile 

 west of Edmore, and repaired two other roads in 



ORDERS TWO STONE ROADS. 



Some road connection with Bay City is as- 

 sured on at least one side of the Saginaw river 

 as a result of a meeting held by the Bay county 

 road commissioners, the construction of the last 

 half mile in Saginaw county having previously 

 been provided for. The action of the Bay county 

 commissioners calls for the immediate building of 

 the Bay county mile and a half to join the Sag- 

 inaw stone road terminal. Besides ordering this 

 the Bay county board also took preliminary steps 

 toward making the east side road a county thor- 

 oughfare, after which it will be treated as the 

 other, thus completing a stone road belt line be- 

 tween Saginaw and Bay City that will make in- 

 tercommunication between these cities perfect. 

 The fact that a Saginaw delegation of eight, to- 

 gether with a number of Bay City business men 

 interested, appeared before the commission was 

 a strong factor in swinging this proposition, maps 

 and iron-bound arguments being sprung in con- 



GOOD ROADS CRUSADE. 



There was a good roads crusade recently start- 

 ed at Sturgeon, Mo., which is deserving of wann- 

 est" praise. At the head is a farmer, George W. 

 Batterton, who has been an enthusiast on the sub- 

 ject for the past forty years and who four years 

 ago decided it was time to practice some of the 

 principles he had been preaching and set a good 

 example for his neighbors. , Accordingly he made 

 a drag of oak lumber, and to the edge of the 

 front piece he bolted a blade of steel, made by 

 the local blacksmith, which acted as a light scraper 

 to throw the dirt collected in front of the drag- 

 to the center of the road. When he visited Stur- 

 geon, three miles distant, he attached this drag 

 to the rear of his wagon or buggy and dragged 

 the roads both coming and going. In this way 

 he consumed very little more time in making the 

 trip to and from town and in the course of a 

 year had made a road which he and the residents 

 of the section claim to be superior to rock roads 

 eleven months in the year, while at no time does 

 it becomes so mudy as to impair seriously its 

 usefulness in hauling heavy loads over it when 

 it is at its worst. 



It is as smooth and hard as a boulevard today, 

 though there \vere heavy rains recently for two 

 days at Sturgeon and in its vicinity. Mr. Bat- 

 terton is so afflicted with rheumatism he can 

 hardly walk. Still he has made three miles of 

 country boulevard practically with his own efforts 

 in four years. 



With this inspiring example as an incentive the 

 business men of Sturgeon and the farmers of the 

 country got together a few days ago and organ- 

 ized a brotherhood of good road draggers, all 

 agreeing to follow the example of attaching a 

 drag to the vehicles in which they drive about 

 on ordinary business. Several automobilists 

 promised to hitch the drag to their motor cars. 

 Bankers, farmers, doctors, gardeners, lawyers, 

 merchants and hucksters propose to co-operate 

 and devote themselves for one year in making 

 and maintaining good roads, no matter what else 

 may happen. "Dragging is the best, simplest and 

 least expensive method to obtain good roads," 

 asserts one enthusiast. 



The North Saginaw Club at Saginaw has taken 

 up the question of good roads, and proposes to 

 see to it that the roads leading out of North 

 Saginaw are kept up to standard. 



