MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MICHIGAN 



ROADS AND FORESTS 



Official Paper of The Michigan Road Makers Association and 

 Michigan Forestry Association. 



70 Lamed Street West, Detroit, Michigan. 



Entered as Second-class Matter April 27, 1907. at the Post Office at De- 

 troii, Michigan, under the Act of Congress of March J. 1879. 



Frank E. Carter Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 

 Tttm STATE REVIKW PUBLISHING CO., 



SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 ^ PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



SHOULD BE MORE CONVICTIONS. 



John Rowett, deputy lire warden, arrived in 

 Iron River the other day, and had a warrant 

 sworn out for the arrest i.l Andrew YViznick 

 for starting brush fires en his farm near the 

 village contrary to the state law. The man 

 wa.s convicted, the lire having gone beyond 

 the limits of his property. He was given a 

 fine or sixty days in the county jail. He re- 

 fused to pay and in consequence is serving 

 out his sentence. ( ' mmenting on the case, 

 the Iron River Reporter say.-: There have 

 been thousands and thousands of dollaiV 

 worth of valuable property destroyed the past 

 few weeks just through such carelessness and 

 it is time that the peope were given to un- 

 derstand that the' starting of brush lire* during 

 such dry spells as we have been having is 

 fraught with too much danger and should be 

 stopped. Wiznick is not the only man who 

 should be sent to jail. There are others and 

 the officers will be doing their full duty in 

 causing the arrest of all violators, no matter 

 who they are. 



FORESTS MEAN WEALTH FOR POS- 

 TERITY. 



About twenty years ago John Earlington, 

 head of a big coal mining concern in Ken- 

 tucky, planted about 1,650,000 young walnut, 

 catalpa, locust, and yellow poplar trees on 

 his company's denuded lands, and they are 

 flourishing splendidly. Some day his com- 

 pany will be reaping as big a fortune off the 

 surface of its lands as it has taken from its 

 depths. Mr. Earlington thinks that "justice 

 to posterity requires that two young trees 

 should be planted for every old one chopped 

 down." 



There's more in it than justice to pos- 

 terity. There's wealth for posterity, possibly 

 more wealth than in putting one's money into 

 banks, bonds, ana insurance for one's pos- 

 terity. 



One railroad concern in s'outhern Califor- 

 nia has 8.000 acres planted to "blue gum" 

 trees, and the reader would be surprised 

 could he know how many individuals, fav- 

 orably located, have invested in a growing 

 young forest of pines, eucalytus, and other 

 rapid grower- a- a safe and sure way of leav- 

 ing riches to then posterity. Parks of young 

 saplings that will some day make ties, furn- 

 iture, houses, and fuel can't be run away 

 with by cro. ked cashiers, and it can be fig- 

 ured that they TV ill finally return the highest 

 -ort of interest on the investment. 



Nobody has more to learn about his own 

 Opportunities than has the fellow with land. 

 N'ot even the Northern farmer, with his an- 

 nual income from syrup and sugar, plairs 

 two rock maples for the one he cuts^or that 

 goes down from age or tempest. All over 

 the land the work of tree destruction has been 

 ruthless. It is time we preached the profit 

 as well as the justice 'that there is to pos- 

 terity in reforestation. There'.- many a lot in 

 the farm- of thi- nation so poor that on it 

 you couldn't raise a first mortgage, but that 

 would grow money for its owner's posterity 



if sel out to trees now. Hut the prevailing 

 idea is to take all that can be squeezed from 

 nature and make the lea.-t pi ssible return. 



$131,600 PAID IN STATE AWARDS. 



During the pa.- 1 li.-cal year the state of 

 .Michigan expended one hall' as much money 

 for good roads a- the total amount expended 

 in the four preceding year-. 



The figures at the department of the high- 

 \\a\ commissioner prove conclusively that 

 Michigan is making gigantic stride- in the 

 task of improving her highways and the va.-t 

 amount of money which the state has ex- 

 pended in award.-, is but a small portion of 

 ihe total which ll'i variou- township and coun- 

 ty organizations are expending in order to 

 win these award-. 



The records sh w that during the fiscal 

 year which ends July 1 the state has already 

 spent J?i:;i.(io<i and this amount will probably 

 he increased by two or three thousand. The 

 record.- al.-o -how that during the four years 

 preceding July 1 the 'state expended $265,506. 

 The amount spent the past year is therefore 

 almost one-half as large as the total expendi- 

 ture of the four years preceding it, i.,r in 

 other words two years' work has been crowd- 

 ed into one. 



some action in continuing the work through 

 Oakland County in the near futre. 



The work is also progressing in a satisfac- 

 tory maner on Michigan and Grand River 

 Roads, and these thoroughfares will soon be 

 open for traffic The road crew on Wood- 

 ward has been moved to Mt. Elliott Road, 

 where the grading is now practically finished, 

 but the work of placing the concrete is being 

 delXycd through the Grand Trunk strike. 



NEED STONE CRUSHING PLANT. 



The necessity of a stone-crushing plant and 

 a steam road roller were discused at a meet- 

 ing of the Kalamazoo county highway com- 

 missioners. 



It ha- been imposible to find suitable- 

 gravel for improving several of the roads in 

 the county where work is to be done this year 

 without making hauls of several miles. Mem- 

 bers of the beard believe that a crusher will 

 supply the best kind of material at an ex- 

 pense much less than would be incurred by 

 hauling. They have decided to purchase one; 

 also a road roller. 



Forty teams have been put to work en the 

 highways in courre of improvement in an 

 effort to finish them at an early date. For 

 several weeks many teams have been em- 

 ployed in the harvest fields and could not be 

 hired for road work. The demand made by 

 the commissioner, can now be filled. 



It is proposed to establish at least two 

 new camps to begin work On those roads 

 not already in course of improvement. The 

 two miles laid out on the Gull road in Rich- 

 land township has been begun. 



WOODWARD ROAD COMPLETED. 



Says County Road Commisioner Edward N. 

 Ilines of Wayne: Woodward Avenue was 

 opened July 21 at 5 o'clock to the county line, 

 and its opening marks the end of the mud, 

 dii-t. ruts, holes and bumps on one of the 

 county's main highways. With the comple- 

 tion of the pavement through the village of 

 Highland Park there will be a stretch of first 

 class roadway from the River in Detroit to the 

 Oakland County line, a distance of about 8J/2 

 miles. The finishing of Woodward Road also 

 makes it' possible to concentrate the funds 

 available on other leading highways. 



Despite unfavorable weather conditions, late 

 start and a shortage in the material market, 

 the work was completed at the time estimated, 

 more rapid pn grjss being made than was cal- 

 culated on at the inception of the work. As an 

 e\ silence of the s'.renuousness of the job, the 

 man whose duty it was to put cement into the 

 mixer had to open the bag, empty the con- 

 tents and put down the imply sack at the 

 rate of one sack per minute, or 600 sacks a 

 day or :xm lineal feet or roadway, each sack 

 weighing 94 pounds, the man thus lifting 55,- 

 loo Ihs. of material in the c< urse of a day's 

 u ' irk. 



Woodward Road is 20 feet wide at its nar- 

 rowest point, and from there runs up to 34 

 ici-t. having 18 feet of concrete, laid in two 

 courses. This road will have a good effect on 

 the people of O'ikland Count> as to the bene- 

 fits and advantages of a highway usable in 

 safety i!Gr> days in the year, and I look for 



TRYING SALT ON MENOMINEE ROADS 



l.i- the iirst time in the northern peninsula, 

 salt is being used as a dust settler in Meno- 

 miiHv county. There will be a mile of street 

 covered with salt as an experiment, one-half 

 mile with the salt in its dry state and the 

 other half mile with the salt as a solution, it 

 being mixed with water. This dust settler 

 lias been used extensively all over the United 

 State- during the past few years, it being tried 

 in Detroit and other cities, and in almost every 

 in.-lance it has been found to be serviceable 

 and well adapted for the purpose. The gov- 

 ernment has made investigations and also the 

 manufacturers thai are putting the salt on 

 the market, and 'heir experiments have always 

 met with success whenever tried. The gov- 

 ernment recommends that the solution he used. 

 The manufacture! s. however, recommend that 

 the salt be used without mixing with water, 

 and for that reason the Menominee county 

 commissioners an using it both ways. The 

 salt is said to ab-orb enough of the dampness 

 out of the atinopherc during the night to 

 keep the street damp all the following day 

 and absolutely dr.-tless. In addition to being 

 a dust settler, it is also a protection to the 

 and greatly raves the wear and tear of 

 the vehicles pacing over it. 



Michigan Road Notes. 



J. S. Haggerty, chairman of the Wayne 

 County Board of Commissioners, was appoint- 

 ed as Michigan's delegate to National Good 

 Roads conventi. n at Niagara Falls July 28-31. 



Chairman W. M. Bryant of the Kalamazoo 

 commission was another delegate. 



The long-continued drouth in June and July 

 seriously interfered with road work in many 

 sections of the state. Since the drouth was 

 broken work has been rushed with great 

 vigor. 



Athens township, Calhoun county, will 

 probably build a mile of state reward gravel 

 road this summer. It will be the opening 

 wedge in that township and will undoubted- 

 ly be followed by the building of gcod roads 

 all over the township. 



DROUTH HARD ON ROADS. 



The prolonged dry weather did great, dam- 

 age to the macadam roads of Marquette city 

 and Marquette county. 



The results on the curves are most ap- 

 parent and the county road between Mar- 

 quette and Negaunee is now in very bad con- 

 diticn in many p'aces. In Marquette, many 

 of the streets fa' - ed just as badly. 



All of this goes to show that ferfection in 

 building a permanent roadway of trap rock 

 h.-'s not been attained in this locality, says 

 a Marquette correspondent. For the first 

 year or two after ebing finished, the road 

 presents a fine appearance, but unless 

 sprinkled frequently -in dry weather, or bound 

 with tar or some other preparation, the sur- 

 face in time wears off and has to he replaced. 

 This is particularly true on hills and curves. 



The street commission of Marquette is 

 about to begin a series of experiments with 

 various commercial binding materials, it hav- 

 ing been found that ordinary tar is not an 

 enire success in all cases. When some per- 

 manent and satisfactory binding material is 

 found, the only possible objection to macadam 

 roadways will have been removed. 



