MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



The Standard Dumping Wagon for Twenty Years 



For twenty years the Watson has been the dumping wagon by which the others are 

 J\,;r ^*S judged. In the number of wagons being used, the number of years'they stay on the 



LjjKlp^M^y^f job, and the freedom from repairs, the Watson is absolutely without a peer. 

 -^" ^ If quality means anything to you; if the verdict of fifteen thousand individuals, firms 



and corporations has any weight then the Watson is entitled to your consideration. Get our catalog, 

 and learn about the dumping wagon that is 



"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-P resident; C. C. Rosenbury, Bay City, Second 

 Vice-P resident ; 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. 



havior while in prison that is now lacking in 

 most, if not all, of our penal institutions. 



Working convicts on road-making or repair- 

 ing is quite impracticable in the northern 

 states, however it may be in those of the 

 south, t is so because of the difference in 

 character of the men and in climatic condi- 

 tions. In Michigan, to illustrate, it would be 

 impossible to employ them on road work 

 more than five or six months of the year, and 

 provision would have to be made for their 

 employment in some other way for the winter 

 months and in the early spring and late fall 

 seasons. The constantly recurring changes 

 from one kind of employment to another 

 would be destructive to discipline in the pris- 

 ons, in addition to being uneconomic, as it 

 would result in making these institutions much 

 more expensive to the state than they now are. 



The wise and sensible thing to do with the 

 problem of prison labor would be to deal with 

 it as a business proposition purely, employing 

 the labor in the manner that would give the 

 largest return to the state thereby rendering 

 maintenance of the prisons less burdensome 

 on the taxpayers and affording the largest 

 opportunity for treatment of the men in a 

 manner according with the theory that their 

 prison experience should be made part of a 

 well-defined policy having in view their recla- 

 mation from criminality. Free labor could 

 well afford to stand the unimportant competi- 

 tion from that source when compensated by 

 a lessening of the tax now paid for the main- 

 tenance of prisons, and by the consciousness 

 that the men confined in these institutions 

 were being given more of a chance to become 

 self-supporting and law-abiding citizens after 

 their release than is possible under the pres- 

 ent system of utilizing threir labor. Marquette 

 Mining Journal. 



"ROADS AND FORESTS" AS AN ADVER- 

 TISING MEDIUM. 



The state highway commissioner writes to 

 Michigan Roads and Forests as follows: "1 

 wish you would cut out the advertisement on 

 page 12, 'Road Builders Wanted.' At the 



present time I cannot supply the demands of 

 one-tenth of the people who answer this ad. 

 The office is flooded with applications." 



KALAMAZOO ROAD COMMISSION'S 

 WORK. 



Making of tile is to be one of the main jobs 

 in connection with the new county roads sys- 

 tem. The commissioners are starting work 

 on tile and hope to be able to secure a suitable 

 place in Kalamazoo for manufacturing all 

 necessary. This tiling will be used for drain- 

 ing the roads and will be offered to people 

 having driveways running into the main roads. 



Work by Kalamazoo county prisoners on 

 the Ravine road just outside the city of Kala- 

 mazoo has been completed. The men were 

 next efnployed under Special Deputy Nash in 

 road-cleaning in Alamo township near Twin 

 lakes. Chairman Bryant of the county high- 

 way commission is much gratified over the 

 result of the plan to have those undergoing 

 jail sentences contribute toward road improve- 

 ment. "I have received very flattering reports 

 from farmers who have observed the men at 

 work," said he. "What they have done has 

 been done well. Already the labor performed 

 by them has converted several to road im- 

 provement who had announced themselves as 

 bitterly opposed to the county method of 

 building and maintaining the thoroughfares." 



Twenty men confined in the Kalamazoo 

 county jail for petty offenses were taken to 

 Pavilion township and set to work on the im- 

 provement of two miles of the Center road. 

 A vacant house in the vicinity of the work 

 was rented by the county road commissioners 

 to be used as a living quarters by the prison- 

 ers. Board is provided for at two farm- 

 houses nearby, the price per meal being 20 

 cents per man. Bedding has been purchased 

 by the commission, so that the involuntary 

 laborers will not return to the city each night. 



The latest of F. W. Hubbard's public bene- 

 factions is an offer, made through the Bad 

 Axe Business Men's Association, whereby he 

 will give the free use of a large steam roller 

 to the surrounding townships for the purpose 

 of building better roads for Huron county. 

 This very generous offer is being accepted 

 by the officers of the respective townships. 

 Mr. Hubbard is taking the initiative in the 

 movement for better roads and it is hard to 

 estimate at this time the value which it will 

 be to towns benefited and to every farmer who 

 has occasion to haul loads over these roads. 

 He is to be highly commended. 



PAYS FOR DAMAGING ROAD. 



Pleading guilty to injuring the highway in 

 front of his farm in White River township, 

 Muskegon county, under the new highway law 

 passed by the last state legislature, after 

 everything had been made ready for a trial 

 of the case, Samuel Sayers, of White River 

 township, was sentenced by Justice Graf of 

 Montague to pay a fine of $5 and $21.80 costs. 



On Nov. 16 last Mr. Sayers plowed a fur- 

 row along the road to make a side road. In 

 doing this it is claimed by the White River 

 township authorities that he injured the high- 

 way. Refusing to repair the damage or pay 

 for the repair, which amounted to $5, Sayers 

 was prosecuted by the township. 



Mr. Sayers contended that he did not pur- 

 posely injure the highway, but changed his 

 plea from not guilty to guilty when the jury 

 list had been made out. 



HISTORIC OLD ELM. 



The old elm at Corydon, under whose rug- 

 ged limbs the Indiana State Constitution was 

 drawn up ninety-three years ago and which 

 for a while seemed doomed to destruction, has 

 at last found a permanent caretaker in the 

 Corydcn organizgation of the Daughters of 

 the American Revolution. 



This old elm, which has always claimed the 

 attention of visitors to the first state capitol 

 and has been an object of reverence for loyal 

 Hocsiers, is called the constitutional elm be- 

 cause of its connection with that important 

 event in the history of Indiana. At present 

 it is in an excellent state of preservation, 

 although there is evidence of some past neg- 

 lect in caring for it. 



The trunk of the constitutional elm is five 

 feet in diameter at the base, and the branches 

 have a spread of nearly 120 feet. A forestry 

 expert recently estimated that the tree is now 

 250 years old and said that with proper care, 

 barring destruction by the elements, of course, 

 the elm should flourish another hundred years. 



OTHER COUNTIES MAY BENEFIT. 



W. W. Mitchell, the Cadillac millionaire 

 lumberman, who announced a few weeks ago 

 that he would give $300 a mile for every mile 

 of state reward road built in Wexford county 

 in the next three years, will be as generous in 

 several other quarters. His lumber firm has 

 camps in two townships in Emmett county, 

 two townships in Cheboygan county, and three 

 in Charlevoix county, and his offer holds good 

 in all of these localities. 



