12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



law. And here we have the county authorities 

 themselves practically in rebellion with the law 

 and state in the enforcement of the simple 

 rule or law, "Thou shalt not steal." In other 

 words, we made laws and provided courts, 

 but we have not provided a machine to en- 

 force the law, and what little we have of this 

 we keep "handcuffed" by lack of power and 

 the methods of election. To the friends of 

 forestry this lesson is of value chieflly because 

 it tells the main trouble in any effort at pro- 

 tecting our forests against lire and vandal. 



LUMBERMEN IN EARNEST. 

 Any on'e looking through the pages of such 

 an excellent paper as the Southern Lumber- 

 man cannot help but realize that the lumber- 

 men' as large holders of timberlands are be- 

 coming thoroughly awake to the new order 

 of things and the possibilities in a better 

 handling of their properties. It is no longer 

 the old time boast of large cuts of timber and 

 the steady lament of a poor market. It is 

 a paper full of good discussion of how to 

 "bridge over" from the old way to the new. 

 The discussion of "Odd lengths" plans an 

 enormous saving of material. The discussions 

 of forest protection and taxation by the lum- 

 bermen at their conventions, rest clearly and 

 safely on a firm belief in the "better way." 

 In addition one is struck and delighted with 

 the liberality and accuracy with which all 

 regular forestry doings are reported in these 

 journals and it is clear that the "old days" 

 are gone for good. A new era is ushered in 

 and much of its vim and good will is evidently 

 due to the advent of younger men, whose 

 schooling is of the present and not of the past. 



LOUISIANA WANTS HER TIMBER 

 LANDS. 



The supreme court of the state of Louisiana 

 recently considered a case in which the state 

 is trying to . recover about 900,000 acres of 

 bottom lands from a land and timber com- 

 pany, who secured the tract by purchase from 

 the Levee Board for $130,000, on the ground 

 that there existed fraud and bribery. What- 

 ever the truth may be, it teaches the old 

 lesson: Absolute lack of any foresight and 

 concern for public good on the part of the 

 state government which allows a levee board 

 to fool away property at its own sweet will. 



And, secondly, it illustrates a serious eco- 

 nomic situation which has misled and is now 

 misleading our people all over the country, 

 and is also misleading our state and national 

 authorities. The fact that in certain parts 

 of Louisiana bottom lands covered with fine 

 hardwood timber are being given away by 

 incompetent levee boards is accepted as an 

 indication of our timber supplies, whereas it 

 is merely an indication of political short- 

 comings. 



USING KING DRAG ON HILLS. 



We are all familiar with the construction of 

 the King drag. Now, instead of making this 

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

 use two 4 by 6 inch crosspieces with 3 by 6 

 inch tenons six inches long on each end. The 

 shoulders of these tenons are mitered each 

 way from the center. These fit mortices in 

 each end of the plank. The mortices are mit- 

 ered from the center to each side. The tenons 

 are secured with one inch hardwood pins out- 

 side of the plank, thus allowing the frame to 

 oscillate. The utility cf 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. 

 Pli.w it in repeatedly each season. After this 

 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. 



PROPER DRAINAGE ESSENTIAL. 



F. P. Spalding, a highway engineer of Col- 

 umbia, Mo., says: 



Gravel or broken stone when used for a 

 road is intended to form a hard .surface, which 

 will resist the wear of the traffic and which 

 will shed the water without softening in rainy 

 weather c.r when snow is melting. The gravel, 

 or ma'cadam, is not in itself a rigid structure, 

 but depends upon the firmness of the earth 

 below to carry the loads which come upon it. 

 The object of the gravel is to make the surface 

 harder and more resistant to wear and the 

 action of water than the earth surface that it 

 replaces, and it can only be effective when 

 the road below it is properly shaped and drain- 

 ed and when the surface has such form as to 

 cause the water which falls upon it to quickly 

 run off without penetrating the road. 



Filling mudholes with gravel is not making 

 a gravel road. This is only wasting good ma- 

 terial. I can recall a mudhole into whcih 

 gravel was regularly dumped every spring for 

 years, and each time when the ground thawed 

 out in the following spring the mud was again 

 on top and ready to swallow another dose of 

 gravel. Probably there is enough gravel in 

 that hole, 200 or 300 feet long, to make a mile 

 of good gravel road. Finally a road super- 

 visor came along, who put in a few hundred 

 feet of tile and crowned the road surface, and 

 there has been no mudhole there since. 



The form which should be given to an 

 earth roadbed and the methods of drainage to 

 be used depend in each instance upon the local 

 conditions surrounding the road. The ability 

 cf earth to sustain a load depends in a large 

 measure upon the amount of water contained 

 by it. Most earth forms a good foundation 

 so long as it is kept dry, but when wet it 

 loses its sustaining power, becoming incoher- 

 ent. When softened by water soil is easily 

 displaced by the settling of the road or forced 

 upward into any space that may exist in it. In 

 order, therefore, that the loads may be uni- 

 formly sustained and the surface of the road 

 kept firm and even it is of first importance 

 that the roadbed be kept dry. The improve- 

 ment and maintenance of a road are therefore 

 largely questions of drainage, the objects being 

 to prevent water frcm reaching the road and 

 to provide means for immediately removing 

 such as does reach it before the soil becomes 

 saturated and softened. 



has 



MICHIGAN ROAD NOTES. 



Antioch township, Wexford county, 

 voted to bond for $2,000 for good roads. 



The board of supervisors of Mecosta county 

 will probably condemn .the Paris toll road, 

 one of the few now in operation in Michigan. 



The township board of Eckford, Calhoun 

 county, has completed its plans for the build- 

 ing of the macadam road on which the Con- 

 solidated Stone and Gravel Company de- 

 faulted last fall. 



roads in that county, and with the awakening 

 has come the determination to compete with 

 the other townships in the matter of first- 

 class highways. The township has voted 

 $"i.00() for permanent road work for this year, 

 and this sum will be increased next year and 

 every year until the township can boast that 

 there are no better roads in Hillsdale county 

 than within the confines cf Reading township. 

 Heretofore Reading, which has the largest 

 assessed valuation of any township in Hills- 

 dale county, has been very niggardly in its 

 appropriation for road work. 



A movement has been started at Battle 

 Creek to open a new highway for the benefit 

 of the Bedford township farmers who frequent 

 Battle Creek. It is proposed to grade and ex- 

 tend West Van Buren street from Limit street 

 to West Main, giving the rural population in 

 that vicinity a new thoroughfare by which to 

 enter the city. 



Every since the double tracking of West 

 Main the farmers have complained that they 

 are unable to drive into Battle Creek with a 

 load of hay owing to the narrow read on 

 either side of the track. They also experienced 

 this difficulty somewhat before the double 

 track was laid, for in one or two sections 

 West Main street is very narrow near the city 

 limits. 



If West Van Buren street is extended to 

 West Main street, then the farmers could 

 come into the city without traversing any 

 narrow street. 



The Beard of Trade of Mt. Pleasant has 

 a good roads committee. This committee 

 has been instructed to work out a plan for 

 the improvement of all roads leading into the 

 city. H. A. Sanf-.rd is chairman of the com- 

 mittee. The committee has already induced 

 Union township to begin good road work. 

 Supervisor McLachlan has offered to supply 

 free gravel for one mile cf road running west 

 from the city. 



Davison township, Genesee county, is strong 

 for good roads this year. The township will 

 issue bonds for $3.500 to build state reward 

 roads, and in addition will raise $1,500 by 

 taxation. Wtih $1,500 left over from last year, 

 the township will have $6,500 to expend on 

 good roads this year. 



Xewberg was the first township in Cass 

 county to attempt state reward roads. It 

 is now in readiness to complete the work and 

 receive its allowance from the state. 



La Grange township, Cass county, has 

 voted to build two miles of state reward road 

 this year. One mile of this road is to be 

 constructed on the north and south road run- 

 ning through Whitmanville. Half a mile is to 

 run north from the old Kinsbury farm, and 

 the other half mile is to run east from the 

 corporation limits of Cassopolis to the Penn 

 township line. This is the Diamond Lake 

 road. 



Tecumseh township, Lenawee county, has 

 voted $1,700 for road bridge work. 



The Marquette Stone Company has begun 

 operations again at its quarry near Chocolay. 

 No quarry work has been started as yet, and 

 the large pile of rock quarried out last sum- 

 mer will be crushed before more is quarried 

 out. P. B. Spear, the manager, anticipates a 

 very good season and already has closed sev- 

 eral large contracts. The company is 

 chiefly engaged in the manufacture of road- 

 making material, large quantities of which are 

 marketed in lower Michigan, as well as in the 

 upper peninsula. 



Reading township, Hillsdale county, has 

 awakened to the fact that it has the poorest 



In accord with the progressive movement 

 for good- roads which was instituted in Elk- 

 land township, Tuscola county, under the lead- 

 ership of A. A. McKenzie, then supervisor, 

 and P. A. Koepfgen, highway commissioner, 

 five years ago, the township has voted to con- 

 struct two more miles of state reward road 

 this summer. The roads chosen for this im- 

 provement are the mile running south from 

 the Bethel church and the mile between the 

 East river bridge and the count}- line, east of 

 Cass City. Both roads are at the end of roads 

 which were improved under state aid in for- 

 mer years. 



St. Charles township. Saginaw county, will 

 spend $10,000 on good roads this year, the 

 electors having voted that amount on April 19. 



