MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MOLASSES FOR ROADS. 



Experiments are now being conducted by 

 the Office of Public Roads of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture in an effort 

 to build a dustproof road by combining blast 

 furnace slag with asphalt or tar. 



This endeavor is of the utmost economic 

 importance, because if the hoped for success is 

 attained unsightly mountains of slag will soon 

 disappear from the vicinity of scores of cities 

 and a ready market will have been established 

 for vast quantities of this material. 



For several years the scientists in the Office 

 of Public Roads, as well as in many of the 

 more progressive States, have been working 

 to achieve two great objects, the utilization of 

 by-products in road building and the develop- 

 ment of dustless roads. Experiments already 

 conducted indicate that crushed rock com- 

 bined with tar or asphalt preparations bid fair 

 to solve in a measure the dustless road prob- 

 lem. Exhaustive laboratory tests have indi- 

 cated that slag in combination with prepara- 

 tinns of tar or asphalt may be made to serve 

 as a substitute for crushed rock. 



One of these experimental stretches of road 

 is now in course of construction at Chicago, 

 under the supervision of Chief Engineer Ver- 

 non M. Peirce of the Federal bureau, and one 

 at Birmingham Ala., under the direction of 

 B. F. Heidel, first assistant engineer. 



The road at Chicago will be of slag and 

 asphalt; that at Birmingham of slaer and tar. 

 The greatest skill and care will be used in 

 putting down these short stretches and they 

 will then be carefully observed during the try- 

 ing months of winter. If in the spring it has 

 been established that this class of road re- 

 mains firm, does not rut, sheds water and 

 makes but little dust, a vast step forward will 

 have been taken in road building and a never 

 failing market will have been created for blast 

 furnace waste. 



Besides this activity in slag experiments the 

 Public Roads Office is also busy at Newton, 

 Mass., with a special asphalt preparation never 

 before tried, which the director and his lieu- 

 tenants hope may prove efficacious as a dust 

 binding surface material. 



The office is also preparing at the same place 

 to lay a stretch of what might be called a 

 "candy road." Nobody except a scientist 

 would go so far afield in research as to adopt 

 molasses as a road building material, but that 

 is exactly what has been done here, and As- 

 sistant Chemist Prevost Hubbard of Director 

 Page's scientific corps has levelled a half mile 

 stretch of road near Newton and will be in 

 active supervision of the laying of the first 

 molasses road of history. This molasses is 

 the almost useless by-product of the great 

 cane sugar refineries of the South and the 

 beet sugar refineries of the West and South- 

 west. It is sickishly sweet, nearly as black 

 and as thick as tar and almost as powerful as 

 a binder. Having always been a waste prod- 

 uct it can be bought at a lower price than coal 

 tar and in greater quantities. 



When the quantity and the sticky con- 

 sistency of this material were called to the 

 attention of Director Page a number of months 

 ago, he conceived the idea that it might aid 

 in solving the always difficult problem of 

 dusty roads. He sent for a supply for labor- 

 atory experiments and detailed Mr. Hubbard 

 to conduct them. ' The molasses was blended 

 with oils and lime water, was mixed with rock 

 dust, with earth and with sand and tried out 

 under heat and under water. It behaved so 

 well and held out such promises for ideal 

 roads that the practical test of a real road 

 was recently decided upon. 



Another scientist, also from the Office of 

 Public Roads, is engaged at Independence, 

 Kan., in trying to devise a method of con- 

 structing oiled roads analogous to the meth- 

 ods which have produced the famous piled 

 roads of southern California. He is mix ; ng 

 heavy oils possessing pronounced asphaltic 

 bases with natural soil and sand and compact- 

 ing the preparation with a tamping roller. One 

 stretch of this peculiar class of highway is 



under construction. The oiled roads of Cali- 

 fornia hae saved millions of dollars to the 

 farmers and fruit growers of that fertile State 

 in the last few years by suppressing the dust 

 that formerly arose in blinding clouds witli 

 in the last few years by suppressing the dust 

 clouds floating to adjacent fields and orchards 

 depreciated the price of farm produce and 

 lowered the values of real estate to a startling 

 degree. The sprinkling of oil was tried and 

 the dust was held in check. Then some of the 

 roads were ploughed and the oil mixed with 

 the earth and the mass firmly rolled to a 

 properly crowned surface. Splendid results 

 followed in most instances. 



BIDS WERE TOO HIGH. 



The bids for the repairing of about two 

 miles of the Marquette county highway be- 

 tween Republic and Humboldt were con- 

 sidered too high, and the county road com- 

 mission decided to di_the work wifh its own 

 crew. The job will be completed within a 

 few weeks. A force of about forty or fifty 

 men and several teams are employed. The 

 improved highway will be a dirt road, but it 

 will be graded and put in the best possible 

 condition. 



It is expected that the remainder of the 

 nine miles of road between Republic and Hum- 

 boldt will receive attention next season, and 

 eventually the thoroughfare will be finished 

 up in a manner similar to the Negaunee-Mar- 

 quette highway, which is conceded to be one 

 of the finest roads to be found anywhere in 

 the country. 



There has been some talk in Dickinson 

 county regarding the improvement of the road 

 leading out from Iron Mountain to the Mar- 

 quette county line west of Republic. It was 

 a short time ago announced that the Dickinson 

 county commission had decided to repair its 

 end of the thoroughfare this fall, and the 

 hooe was expressed that the Marquette county 

 commission would also do some work in that 

 district. There are about three miles of the 

 road in Marquette county that should be en- 

 tirely rebuilt, but the rest of the road from 

 Republic to the Dickinson county line is in 

 fairly good condition and the repairs would 

 be inexpensive as compared with the three- 

 mile stretch referred to. It is not likely that 

 any work will be done west of Republic this 

 season. 



MUSKEGON ROAD IMPROVEMENT. 



When the winter season closes this year -it 

 will see only two miles of unimproved roadbed 

 on the long-waited-for and much-discussed 

 Holland road in Muskegon county. 



A mile of macadam road completed and 

 plans for the completion of two miles before 

 work is abandoned for the season, is the re- 

 port made by County Superintendent Bush at 

 the meeting of the board of county road com- 

 missioners. 



The road was laid straight south from Hoi- 

 ton village, work haying been transferred to 

 that end of the line in order to have a good 

 road over which to haul the stone which is 

 now being shipped to Holton and unloaded 

 there. 



The two miles that are to be completed this 

 year are over some of the hardest ground that 

 will have to be covered in the county. Sev- 

 eral hills had to be graded down and a swamp 

 filled. 



When the two miles of road is completed 

 this year there will still remain two miles of 

 unimproved road between the end of the pres- 

 ent improvement and the east and west clay 

 road runnnig east from Twin Lake. 



ONE BIT OF GOOD ROAD. 



Great was the notoriety once enjoyed by 

 Ripley's main highway (Ripley is located in 

 Houghton county), many were its claims to 

 prominence. But alas, alas, 'tis so no longer. 

 In the good old days a ride o'er its undulat- 

 ing way gave about as realistic a reproduction 

 of the original "Bump-the-Bumps" as could 

 be found this side of Coney Island. Scorch- 



ing autoists thought of it as synonymous to 

 hitting the high places, and considered them- 

 selves lucky if they got through without knock- 

 ing the top off half a dozen of the myriad little 

 hills that dotted the way. It was the buga- 

 boo of old ladie's out for a drive, speech being 

 impossible in itself an untold agony without 

 the ever present fear of having their teeth 

 jarred ignominiously into their lap. But these 

 are now but memories of the past, for the 

 thoroughfare has been reduced to the uniform 

 unchanging level that classifies it with num- 

 berless other unheard of and unimportant 

 highways scattered through the land. The 

 work has been going on for the past summer 

 under the direction of Commissioner Vial, who 

 deserves credit for the fine highway. 



BAY COUNTY DRAWS $7,750. 



The state of Michigan will pay $7,750 to- 

 wards the construction of stone roads in Bay 

 county this year. Frank Rogers, deputy state 

 highway commissioner, has notified the county 

 clerk that three and a quarter miles which he 

 looked over complied with the specifications 

 and that orders would be issued for the same. 

 The state pays $1,000 for each mile con- 

 structed, which means $3,250. There is one 

 mile and three-quarters under way which, with 

 $3,000 previously received, the total will be 

 $7,750, as stated. The deputy commissioner 

 went over one mile on the Pinconning road, 

 quarter of a mile on the Fisher road, half a 

 mile on the Euclid avenue road, half a mile on 

 the townline road between Portsmouth and 

 Merritt, and one mile on the Saginaw road. 



"Where there has been much criticism dur- 

 ing the past few years in regard to the meth- 

 ods and material employed in building roads," 

 says a Bay county road commissioner, "and 

 perhaps justifiable to some extent, the fact is 

 that better highways are being made now 

 than ever before. It is true that the lime stone 

 is not so desirable as harder stone would be, 

 but we are doing excellent work with what 

 we are able to obtain in the way of material. 

 With the heavy rollers the roadways are made 

 firm and more durable. Surely it would be a 

 good thing for the county if we could secure 

 hardheads or good gravel, but that is simply 

 out of the question because the cost would be 

 too great for the people to bear." 



TO BOND FOR GOOD ROADS. 



South Branch township, Wexford county, is 

 making an effort to get some good roads 

 built and will avail itself of the opportuity of 

 getting state reward to help out in the cost. 

 A petition is now being circulated for enough 

 signatures to call a special election, when the 

 proposition to bond the township for $1,200 

 for building roads will be submitted to the 

 people. It is believed that when the election 

 is held there will be practically no opposition, 

 as the advisability of good roads in South 

 Branch is readily recognized. The grade has 

 already been completed for one piece of road 

 by D. C. Scarborough, highway commissioner 

 of that township. 



REWARDS FOR GOOD ROADS. 



The Adrian -Gas Co. has joined the good 

 roads movement with a will and has offered 

 a reward of $25 per mile for every bit of good 

 roads constructed in Lenawee county. This 

 $:2.5 together with the $100 offered by the 

 Adrian Industrial Association added to the 

 $500 which will be received as soon as Lena- 

 wee county comes in under the state reward 

 law, will make a standing offer of $625 for 

 every bit of good gravel road constructed in 

 Lenawee county. 



The township authorities of Mancelona 

 township, Antrim county, have received a 

 check for $1,337 from the state highway de- 

 partment in settlement of the bounty paid by 

 the state for the building of good roads. This 

 was in payment for two and one-half miles of 

 gravel road built in Mancelona township this 

 year, and for a balance left over from last 

 year. 



