MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



QUICK DRYING ROAD. 



I have always been very interested and ob- 

 servant in the matter of country roads and 

 have read many valuable articles on the sub- 

 ject. But I still think there are some points 

 that I have not seen touched upon relative 

 to roadmaking, especially in the hill country 

 along the Mississippi and Missouri slopes. 



The great object of road work should be 

 to get the water away as quickly as possible. 

 We have a good soil for roadmaking, but the 

 hills are of silt formation, and a stream of 

 water crumbles them like so much loaf sugar. 



Many of our experienced roadmakers will 

 throw up a hill grade and carry the water 

 down each 'side for long distances. Then 

 comes a heavy rainfall. Forty thousand rivu- 

 lets from the hillside above pour into the 

 drains, and such a volume of water accumu- 

 lates as to cut deep gorges. These make the 

 road almost impassable and require several 

 days' labor a number of times each year to 

 repair. To avoid this trouble the road may 

 be sloped from the bank side enough to carry 

 the water directly across the road. 



When a grade is desired on a side hill road- 

 way, plow in three furrows on the lower side, 

 the outside furrow to be about twenty feet 

 from the bank. When grading, draw this loose 

 dirt toward the center of the roadway with 

 a slope of about one inch to the foot, carrying 

 this slope across the entire grade. The ditch 

 thus made should be opened at short inter- 

 vals to let out the water. 



After the grading is done headers should 

 be put in to divert any water that might fol- 

 low the wheel track. To make these headers 

 scrape with the slusher a trench a little di- 

 agonally across the grade about two scrapers 

 width and not deep. Deposit this dirt with 

 more from the outside alongside the trench, 

 making the ridge no higher than absolutely 

 necessary to accomplish its purpose and not 

 less than ten feet wide, thus causing as little 

 obstruction as possible. This plan will always 

 provide a quick-drying hill road. With the 

 occasional use of a King drag this can be kept 

 like a boulevard. 



Mr. King is an enthusiast on the merits of 

 his invention and thinks lightly of any changes 

 that may be made in it, but for the benefit 

 of those not so sanguine I will describe my 

 improvement, to be used more particularly in 

 a hill country. 



We are all familiar with the construction 

 of Mr. King's drag. Xow, instead of making 

 this drag rigid by tight mortices, tenons, etc., 

 we use two 4x6 crosspieces with 3x6-inch 

 tenons six inches long on each end. The 

 shoulders of these tenons are mitered away 

 from the center. These fit mortices in each 

 end of the plank. The mortices are mitered 

 from the center to each side. The tenons are 

 secured with one-inch hardwood pins outside 

 of the plank, thus allowing the frame to oscil- 

 late. The utility of this may be seen when we 

 want to carry the dirt all one way on side 

 hills, etc. We pull through as far as desired, 

 then change the team, hitch to the opposite 

 side, turn around and continue moving the 

 dirt as before. If properly made, this drag 

 will pull in a direct line and do better work. 



When the highway is cut through a hill it 

 is desired to keep reducing the grade. To this 

 end, work the road against one bank, leaving 

 a ditch on one side only. Turn all the water 

 from above and along the hill into this ditch. 

 Plow it in repeatedly each season. After the 

 trench has washed too much for safety smooth 

 this side and change the ditch to the opposite 

 side of the road and repeat. You will be sur- 

 prised at the change in steepness effected in 

 ten or twelve years. W. S. Wiley in Good 

 Roads Magazine. 



WORK HOBOES ON ROADS. 



Acting under the provisions of a statute 

 passed by the legislature of 1897, a resolution 

 has been adopted by the board of supervisors 



of Kalamazoo county that it is the sense of 

 the board that all male jail prisoners over 18 

 years old, capable of performing manual labor, 

 shall be employed in the preparation or con- 

 struction of materials for roads in Kalamazoo 

 cvunty. This resolution was adopted by un- 

 animous vote. In order to perfect the details 

 of the provisions of the resolution, a commit- 

 tee composed of Supervisors Ten Busschen, 

 Eldred and Collins was appointed. The mem- 

 bers of the board are strongly of the opinion 

 that drunks and "hoboes" should hereafter pay 

 for their keeping by work, and thus save to the 

 county several thousand dollars annually. 



SAGINAW ROADS A MODEL. 



That Saginaw county's macadam road sys- 

 tem, built under state aid, is attracting outside 

 attention is shown by the fact that its high- 

 ways are being inspected by a committee of 

 the Wisconsin legislature, appointed to study 

 road building in Michigan and other states. 

 Saginaw county was selected because of the 

 extensive use it has made of state appropria- 

 tions in the improvement of its roads. 



The committee was warm in its praise of 

 Saginaw's roads and approved the Michigan 

 plan of state award, declaring that when it re- 

 turns to Wisconsin it will draft a bill patterned 

 after the Michigan act and recommending a 

 large appropriation to carry on good roads 

 building in Wisconsin. 



NEW ROADS ASKED FOR. 

 At the Calumet township (Houghton coun- 

 ty) board meeting a petition for a road lead- 

 ing from Ridge street, Swedetown, to section 

 29, township 56, and Range 33, was presented 

 by farmers living in that district. A similar 

 petition was also presented to the Osceola 

 township authorities. The Calumet township 

 board now has three petitions on file for new 

 roads. These are the petition stated above, 

 one for a road leading through the Trap Rock 

 River Valley district, and another on the sec- 

 tion line back of Centennial Heights. It is 

 believed that next spring work on at least two 

 of the proposed roads will be started. 



DELTA'S GREAT ROAD SYSTEM. 



At a recent meeting of the Delta county road 

 commissioners a series of township roads, 

 heretofore under the supervision cf the town- 

 ship road officials, were added to the great 

 Delta county road system. This step marks 

 the beginning of a definite plan to connect 

 Delta county's remotest points with a network 

 of roads all belonging to the one system. At 

 the next meeting of the county road commis- 

 sioners the second step will be taken, when 

 preparations will be made to connect several 

 roads and to repair poor stretches of county 

 thoroughfares. 



The three roads added to the county system 

 are the Fairbanks county road, the Garden 

 road and the Nahma county road. The first is 

 composed of a portion of the Poine de Tour 

 and Manistique state roads, running through 

 the township of Fairbanks. The second is a 

 portion of the Day's River and Bay de Xoc 

 state road, running through the township of 

 Garden. The third is another portion of the 

 state road, running through the township of 

 Nahma. 



The adding of these roads to the county 

 system means that the county system will run 

 from the southernmost point of Fairbanks 

 township through Garden, Xahma and Bay de 

 Xoc townships and pass Fairbanks, Garden 

 City. Vans' Harbor, Fayette, Xahma and Isa- 

 bella. In addition the system will now cross 

 the Soo line. 



result in the construction of 10 or 12 miles of. 

 road per year for the next three years. 



W. W.' Mitchell, Cadillac's benefactor and 

 Wexford county's philanthropist, stated that 

 he would give $300 for every mile of road built 

 during the next three years. 



The association elected the following offi- 

 cers: President, D. B. Kelly, of Cadillac; 

 V ice-President, Dr. V. F. Huntley, of Manton; 

 Secretary, Fred H. Meyer, of Manton; Treas- 

 urer, Henry Knowlton, of Cadillac. Executive 

 committee, the officers and Charles T. Mitchell 

 of Cadillac, F. Brehm of Hobart, and A. E. 

 Southwick of Sherman. Financial committee, 

 C. R. Smith and Harry A. Beaver, of Cadillac. 



It will be the business of the finance com- 

 mittee to visit the well-to-do and influential 

 people in Wexford county and secure from 

 them funds with which to construct roads. 

 The construction of the roads means great ad- 

 ditional wealth, both to the farmers and the 

 merchants of the county. 



Following the generous offer of W. W. 

 Mitchell to give $300 for every mile of state re- 

 ward read built in Wexford county in the next 

 three years, public spirited citizens have taken 

 it upon themselves to enlist the interest of 

 other people in the county to follow Mr. 

 Mitchell's gocd example. Blanks are now be- 

 ing sent about the county seeking the signa- 

 tures of other men who will agree to give cer- 

 tain amounts for every mile constructed in the 

 county during the next three years, provided 

 that not more than ten miles are constructed 

 in any one year. It is expected there will be a 

 generous amount thus pledged for a good 

 wi rk. 



Good Road Notes. 



Deputy State Road Commissioner Rogers 

 has allowed state reward money to Saginaw 

 county as follows: East street road, $1,000; 

 Frankenmuth road, $1,750; Bay Street road, 

 $500; Taymouth road, $500; Carrollton road, 

 $250; total, $4,000. 



Townsend A. Eiy, state highway commis- 

 sioner says that during the season of 1909, 

 twelve miles of state aid road have been built 

 in Gratiot county. Two miles each in Arcada, 

 Pine River, Emerson and Sumner and cne each 

 in Xorth Star, Xewark, Bethany and New 

 Haven townships. 



The Hatton town board, Clare county, has 

 let a contract to Thos. McGivern to build a 

 mile of gravel state award road for $1250, to 

 be completed as the weather may permit. It 

 is understood that the Arthur town board 

 have virtually decided to build the next mile 

 of road north along the town line, W. C. Corn- 

 well substantially helping the project. 



Deputy State Highway Commissioner Frank 

 F. Rogers says that while the good roads 

 movement is popular!}' believed to be some- 

 what behind hand in the upper peninsula, 

 Houghton county is one of the only three 

 above the straits which have not adopted the 

 county system. The ether two are Keweenaw 

 and Mackinac. Ontonagon, Bessemer and 

 Schoolcraft counties voted to adopt the good 

 roads system last spring, but have not yet had 

 time to put it in practice. Dickinson, Mar- 

 quette, Delta and Menominee counties now are 

 operating under the county system, and Mr. 

 Rogers states that exceptionally good work is 

 being done there. Barage county has done lit- 

 tle to improve its highways, but it is now on 

 the right course, and it cnly remains for 

 Houghton to fall in line to secure good roads 

 clear through to Chicago. 



WEXFORD HAS ROAD ASSOCIATION. 



At a meeting of the people interested in the 

 future of Wexford county, and especially in 

 its good roads, held at Cadillac, a good roads 

 association was formed and an impetus given 

 the good roads movement which will probably 



County Read Commissioner Alwocd of Clare 

 count}', has decided to reject all bids for the 

 building of a mile of state reward road in 

 Arthur township. The lowest bid was $2,800. 

 The commissioner figures he can do the job 

 himself at a much lower figure. 



