MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



The Standard Dumping Wagon for Twenty Years 



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"First in the Field; Last in the Repair Shop" 



Watson Wagon Co., Canastota, N. Y. 



Michigan Road Makers' Association 



W. W. Todd, Jackson, President; P. T. Colgrove, Hastings, First Vice-President ; C. C. Rosenbury, Bay City, Second 

 Vice-Pvesident; E. N. Hines, Detroit, Secretary; E. B. Smith, Detroit, Treasurer. 



Board of Governors: Royal T. Taylor, Cheboygan; D. L. Case, Detroit; Frank F. Rogers, Lansing; W. W. 

 Trayes, Hancock. 



NATIONAL ROADS CONVENTION. 



One of the most interesting features of the, 

 second annual national good roads convention 

 in Cleveland Sept. 21-23 was the prominent 

 part taken in the proceedings by officers of 

 the National Grange, the organization which 

 represents 1. 000.000 American farmers. Up to 

 nparatively short time ago the great ma- 

 of farmers were inclined to oppose 

 movement for improved highways, a few years 

 ago because the cycli:-ts were the most enthu- 

 siar-tic advocates of good roads, and later be- 

 cause the owners of automobiles were most 

 prominent in the endeavor to secure the bet- 

 terment of the highways. 



This attitude of the farmers, to a very great 

 extent, has been changed in the last few years 

 as the more thoughtful members and officers 

 of the local, state and national granges have 

 come to realize the annual loss to the farmers 

 from having to haul the products of their farms 

 to market over bad and indifferent roads. In 

 parts of the country where the roads have 

 been improved the farmers have been able to 

 haul from two to four times as much farm 

 produce to market in the same time as their 

 less fortunate brothers could in districts where 

 the roads were roads only by courtesy, and 

 these facts have been brought forward by the 

 officers of the organization. 



There was a very large attendance of dele- 

 - and much enthusiasm was manifested. 



Among those who made addresses were 

 former Governor X. J. Batchelder of Xew 

 Hampshire, master of the National Grange, on 

 "The National Grange and Good Roads;'' 

 George S. Ladd. special good roads lecturer of 

 the National Grange, on "The New- England 

 Plan f( r Connecting Lines of Trunk High- 

 ways:" Hon. T. C. Laylin. master Ohio State 

 Grange, on "The Farmers' Interest in Road 

 Improvement;" Hon. F. N. Godfrey, master 

 New York State Grange, on "The New York 

 State Grange and Good Roads Legislation in 

 That State:" H. H. Gross, president of the Illi- 

 Farmers' Good Roads League, on "Illi- 

 Good Roads," and D. Ward King, who 

 wa-, a farmer of Maitland, Mo., before he be- 

 came a member of the Missouri State Board 

 of Agriculture, and who has become famous 

 all uver the country by his invention of the 

 King split log drag, on "Treatment of Earth 



Roads," in which the split log drag can be 

 used to great advantage. 



Many other addresses were made by engi- 

 neers. 



The United States Office of Public Roads, in 

 the Department of Agriculture at Washington, 

 was represented .by Logan Waller Page, direc- 

 tor, and several members of his staff. 



Director of Public Roads Page in his ad- 

 dress said: 



"In mileage, this country has the most tre- 

 mendous system of roads which any country 

 has ever possessed since the world began. The 

 length of all our roads amounts to 2,155,000 

 miles. Expenditures upon them, both in 

 money and labor, was a fraction over $79,000,- 

 000 in 1904, or about $1.05 per capita. At the 

 same rate this would be an expenditure of 

 about $90,000,000 a year at the present time. 

 England, with only $150,000 miles of road, 

 spends about $80,000,000 a year, or about 14 

 times as much per mile. 



"We have less than 40,000 miles of stone- 

 suriaced road and 108,000 miles of gravel road. 

 The aggregate of expenditures for roads from 

 1870 to 1900 \\ .000,000. We may there- 



fore say that road-building in the L'nited 

 States i~. considering area, population and 

 wealth, at the same point where it stood 30 

 ago and the seventeen hundred and odd 

 million dollars have produced few appreciable 

 results. 



"About half the states are operating under 

 practically the same road laws that prevailed 

 in England when America was a colony. 



"In the other states the principle of state 

 aid and supervision have been adopted, $56,- 

 000,000 have been expended from the state 

 trca-ury and we may feel encouraged for the 

 future of road-building in this country. 



"The most important point that should en- 

 gage the attention of legislatures is road main- 

 tenance. Many are spending large sums for 

 construction of roads, but are giving little at- 

 tention to their care. England pays for main- 

 tenance $440 per mile per year, France 

 Germany $-'14 and Belgium $277. 



"We need, and must have, more money for 

 roads, definite provision for maintenance, a 

 syr-tem of continuous repair and a centralized, 

 skilled supervi- 



In addition to the addresses by highway en- 

 gineers and others who have devoted years of 

 study to the building of good roads, there was 

 f thorough and practical demon- 

 strations upon different roads in and around 

 Cleveland, in which many methods of construc- 

 tion were critically examined. 



A GOOD OBJECT LESSON. 



County Road Commissioner Willard B. Ly- 

 ons, of Mecosta county, sent to the state 

 highway department a statement showing the 

 cost of constructing the two miles of road re- 

 cently finished, one in Wheatland township 

 and the other in Morton. He feels just a little 

 bit proud of his record, and is not afraid to 

 submit his work and compare expenses with 

 any road built. The statement shows that the 

 mile built in Wheatland cost the taxpayers of 

 the county just $1,091.12 and the mile built in 

 Morton only $574.64; that is, this will be the 

 net sum after the county gets its $500 per 

 mile back from the state. The average for 

 the two miles will be a little over $830. The 

 figures as sent the highway department are as 

 follows: 



The Wheatland road has a turnpike 22 feet 

 wide, with nine feet gravel. The engineers' 

 expenses, including cost of survey and profile, 

 were $12; the cost of grading, $672.76; cost of 

 labor and hauling, $754.16; cost of gravel. $100; 

 cement and tile, $52.20; total cost, $1,591.12, 

 from which is to be deducted $500 for state 

 reward, leaving a net total of $1,091.12. 



The Morton township mile is charged up 

 with $6 for engineer's expenses, $464.62 for 

 cost of grading, $90.63 for gravel, $489.83 for 

 labor and hauling, and $23.56 for tile and ce- 

 ment, making a total of $1,074.64, of which 

 $500 will be paid by the state. This leaves the 

 net cost of one mile of road $574.64. 



The length of the haul in Morton was a lit- 

 tle shorter than in Wheatland, Mr. Lyons says. 



Mr. Lyons's low figures will probably be 

 better appreciated when compared to the cost 

 of building roads under the township system 

 in Wheatland township, where two miles were 

 recently built, not far from where the county 

 road has been laid. These figures show that 

 the township of Wheatland paid out just 

 $3,852.26 for two miles of road, and that the 

 township received as reward from the state 

 $'.'7-. leaving the net cost to the taxpayers of 

 Wheatland township of $2,874.2:>. 



The roadbed built by the township was only 

 18 feet wide, whereas the roadbed built by the 

 county is 22 feet wide. 



An appropriation of $30,000 will be asked 

 by the good roads commission from the super- 

 visors of Kalamazoo county at the coming 

 session to be used in this county next spring 

 for the improvement of roads. This amount, 

 if granted, will be the largest sum ever ex- 

 pended in Kalamazoo county in one year for 

 road improvements. 



