MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



11 





To those 9O,OOO Taxpayers who want a 



Road Culvert Which Can Not Rust 



'5 5AND-CLAY ROAD 



>7 - Dtric/cnT s/vip /sr CLAY 

 B -SRTisnqcTo/?r ^nrrp CLAY 



C - WORKOUT SfiriP CLAY /ff/XT(//? 

 An Illustration of Sand-Clay Metaling Advocated by A. J. Sager of Climax, Mich. 



ants see to it that ditches are kept open, holes 

 and ruts are filled, sand and earth removed 

 after rains, that the trees and bushes are 

 trimmed, and that the surface of the road is 

 so maintained that a single horse may at any 

 time cover eighteen miles of road, dragging 

 behind him with ease a weight which a dozen 

 yoke of oxen could not haul through many 

 miles of the boggy quagmire which in the 

 south and southwestern portions of our coun- 

 try are called public highways. 



If America is to maintain rank as the leading 

 nation of the world, there is work for highway 

 engineers, and the time is short. 



Economic Side of Good Roads. 



1'oor roads impose an unnecessary financial 

 burden not only upon those who most con- 

 stantly use them, but upon the men and wo- 

 rm n who consume the products grown in the 

 rural sections and brought to cities and towns 

 by farmers. 



No more convincing study can be had than 

 that of the economic waste placed upon the 

 six. aiders of the s:i,000,000 people of this land 

 from the almost criminally shameful condition 

 of 2.000.000 miles of road. Every pound of 

 farm products brought from rural sections to 

 thickly populated centers has placed upon it 

 a fictitious value, because it costs the farmer 

 more to transport it than it would cost him 

 were the roads in passable condition. The 

 price of the lamb chop that madam has for 

 breakfast is based not upon the real value of 

 the unfortunate lamb, but upon the cost of 

 bringing that lamb from the western fields to 

 the breakfast table. The cost of the breakfast 

 roll would be but trifling did it not cost the 

 farmer who grew the wheat from which the 

 roll was made 1.8 cents a bushel more to draw 

 that wheat from his farm nine miles to a rail- 

 road station than it cost to carry a bushel of 

 wheat from Xew York to Liverpool, a distance 

 of 3,100 miles. The cost of a soft boiled egg, 

 which is also closely related to the American 

 breakfast, is established by the cost of trans- 



porting the product of the hen to the hotel, 

 and not because the egg was at all worth what 

 was charged for it. 



Everybody who thinks must concede the evi- 

 dent fact that if a farmer with two horses can 

 draw but 600 pounds to market in five hours, 

 he would save money if with one horse he 

 could haul 1,200 pounds in two hours. Were 

 the roads in good condition he could do that 

 and more. Any saving in hauling a ton of 

 farm product would bring a benefit not alone 

 to the farmer, but to the consumer, and if the 

 product hauled each year was large, it is not 

 hard to figure that the saving would be large. 

 Figures have been assembled to prove that 

 owing to the frightful condition of almost all 

 American roads, it cost 25 cents a ton a mile 

 to haul. The superb roads of the old countries 

 of Europe make possible the hauling of farm 

 products at 12 cents a ton a mile. Therefore, 

 every ton hauled costs the American farmer 

 13 cents more per mile than the farmers of 

 the old country are forced to pay. The aver- 

 age length of haul of farm products in the 

 United States is 9.4 miles; therefore, were our 

 roads as good as those of France, the farmers' 

 gain would be 9.4 times 13 cents, or approxi- 

 mately $1.23. 



Let us see what that amounts to in a year 

 in hauling but a portion of the products which 

 traverse the country roads in wagons. The 

 United States department of agriculture, 

 through its office of public roads, has collect- 

 ed the figures and they may be accepted as 

 approximately accurate. During the crop year 

 of 1905-6, 85,487,000,000 pounds of farm prod- 

 ucts, consisting of barley, corn, cotton, flax- 

 seed, hemp, hops, oats, beans, rice, tobacco, 

 wheat and wool were hauled from the places 

 where they originated to shipping points. 

 This vast weight did not, by any means, in- 

 lude all of the crops produced, the most 

 notable exceptions being truck products and 

 orchard products, the tonnage of these two 

 amounting high in the millions. Neither did 

 it include any figures for forest or mine prod- 



ucts, nor for those things which go in wagons 

 from the cities back to the country districts. 

 Were all those included, one may easily see 

 what a vast annual saving would be made. 

 As it is, at a saving of 13 cents per ton mile, 

 the cash benefit to the farmers would be 

 $58,900,000. 



Beyond that, however, the interstate com- 

 merce commission has assembled other freight 

 figures, a most conservative estimate and most 

 liberal deductions from their figures tending 

 to prove that 250,000,000 pounds are annually 

 hauled. By the same method of figuring as 

 that adopted above, the hauling of this would 

 result in a saving of about $305,000,000 a year. 

 It would appear that so vast a sum should not 

 be annually thrown away, simply because 

 those responsible for appropriations of money 

 to construct roads cannot be brought to a 

 realization of their tremendous importance. 

 The time for an awakening is here, and the 

 quicker the awakening occurs, the greater the 

 benefit the farmer will enjoy. 



With one petition in, and others expected, 

 asking for new roads in and about Calumet, 

 the township board will go into the question 

 of building new roads and repairing old ones 

 very thoroughly at its next meeting, the first 

 Tuesday in July. Supervisor MacNaughton 

 is known to favor the making of good roads 

 in the township, and with the other members 

 of the board will do everything in his power 

 to improve the road system in Calumet. 

 Rights of way are to be asked for from the 

 farmers, and legal steps taken to avoid all 

 hindrance to the building of new roads when 

 the question comes up. Calumet is going 

 after the road making problem in earliest, it 

 is understood, and will earn the commendation 

 of every taxpayer. 



