12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



Lake Superior 



Genuine 



TRAP ROCK 



For Road Making and Fireproof Con- 

 crete. 



Rail and Lake Shipments. 



Write for prices. 



MARQUETTE STONE CO., 

 Marquette, Mich. 



ROAD BUILDERS WANTED. 



Many different localities throughout Michi- 

 gan are writing the State Highway Depart- 

 ment, asking for names and addresses of con- 

 tractors and practical road builders who can 

 and will enter into a contract, or will take 

 charge of and superintend the building of 

 state r-oads. All persons who desire to make 

 contracts, or wish to be employed as super- 

 intendents, should send their names and ad- 

 dresses to the State Highway Department, 

 Lansing, Mich. 



Best Road Material 



OUR HOBBY 



Crushed Granite and Gravel 



SCREENED TO SUIT 



WRITE US 



THE HENRY MERDIAN CO., 



43-44 Pe 

 Phone Main 6251 



ular Bank Building. 



DETROIT 



MICHIGAN ROAD NOTES. 



"A state that will exact a license lax from 

 antomohilists. adding it to the state road fund 

 ami then take money out of the fund to re- 

 plenish the general treasury depleted by the 

 extravagances of an administration. is like the 

 man who buys a paper from a poor little 

 newsboy and then steals ilie two cents." Thus 

 former Highway Commissioner H. S. Earle 

 expresses his opinion of the state of Michigan, 

 with reference to the recent treasury shortage 

 and the draw made upon the road fund. Not 

 entirely satisfied with this characterization 

 Mr. Earle went further and said: "Michigan 

 is the only state in the union that has done 

 such a thing and therefore it is the smallest 

 state in the union." The ex-commissioner 

 points with pride to his little record book for 

 keeping tab on applications for state roads 

 and chuckles over the total of 582 applications 

 during his conduct of the department. 



The county board of road commissioners of 

 Delta county received three bids for macad- 

 amizing portions of the bay shore and the 

 Bark river roads. Three bids were received 

 and that of the Solid Rock Paving and Con- 

 struction Coinpanv was accepted. The bids 

 were as follows: Solid Rock Paving and Con- 

 struction Company, bay road, $6.379: Bark 

 river road. $'.),! '.>.">. Delta Construction Com- 

 pany, bay road, $8,2011.15; Bark river road. 

 $10,404. Northern Construction and Engi- 

 neering Company, bay road, $7,333.72: Bark 

 river road, $ ( .l,413.!)0. 



price paid is higher than that paid for the 

 road constructed last year, but gravel must 

 be hauled farther. The road is to be com- 

 pleted by September 1. 



build about five miles of state reward road this 



season. 



The petition of Stephenson township to the 

 board of supervisors of Menominee county 

 for a roail from Koss to \Yausankee bridge- 

 died a violent death by a vote of 10 to s. 

 Strong pleas for the building of the road were 

 made by Supervisors Oberdorffer, Randall and 

 Radford, and equally strong arguments 

 against it were made by Supervisors Lowitx. 

 Swanson and Sorcnson. The road in question 

 would be about eight miles in length, and 

 many of the supervisors could not see the 

 benefit of putting the county to such a great 

 expense for the little benefit that would be 

 derived from it. 



Fred Usewick. one of the county road com- 

 missioners of Wexford. has been pushing work 

 on the mile of road from the Tindall hill north 

 of Sherman. The center of the road toward 

 the north end was near standing timber, so 

 that it was necessary to cut down a strip about 

 two rods wide for some distance and take -out 

 the stumps, which added very much to the 

 work to be done on this mile. 



County Road Commissioner VV. B. Lyons 

 ha-, completed the first mile of state reward 

 county road in Mecosta county. lie expect.-, 

 to complete live additional miles of road be- 

 fore the season closes. 



The Wayne county road commissioners have 

 rumnk'ted a mile of state reward road north 

 of I lighland Park vil! 



Newton township. Calhonn county, is going 

 to build two additional miles of -laic reward 

 gravel road this summer. It will be a con- 

 tinuation if the Beadle lake road, four miles 

 of which we're improved last year. 



Cerrish township. Kosconnnon count v. will 

 expend $15,000 on good roads in its territory. 



Marshall township. Calhonn county, will 

 build two miles of road this year. 



John M. Mclntyre. of Sheridan township. 

 Huron county, has secured the contrad f< r 

 building t \\ o nide~ ,,, ,|;,te road in the north 

 western part of Elkland lounship. Tu-cola 

 county. The contract price is $2.!i'.m. The 



Linus Wolcott, of Burton; William Becker. 

 of Fenton, and George Sellers, of Genescc. 

 were, named as Genesee county's first county 

 road commission by the board of supervism s. 

 The new commissioners will serve until the 

 next general election, which is a year from 

 next April. The members of the commission 

 will receive $250 a year for their services. 

 which is payable quarterly. A plan advanced 

 by the board is that an expert road-builder be 

 engaged at a salary, to have direct charge fo 

 the work, under the advisement of the board. 

 The commission will hold a meeting soon ami 

 will organize and plan the work to be done 

 next year in order that the supervisors at 

 their session this fall may apportion the tax. 

 The selection of the commission and the other 

 matters which arose pertaining to good roads 

 received earnest attention at the hands of the 

 supervisors. The universal sentiment seemed 

 to be that the work should be planned and 

 the tax levied, so that improvement might be 

 begun as soon as possible. Nothing was said 

 by the supervisors as to the roads which in 

 their opinion should be first built. 



The question of better roads in and leading 

 into Chesaning is agitating the minds of the 

 couucilmen of that village. Mayor Johnson 

 says that the village has had the re. ad leading 

 south to the pine tree on the cemetery road 

 surveyed and plans are being inaugurated for 

 the improvement of the road. Mr. Johnson 

 says it has long been delayed and must surely 

 be put in good order this summer. 



The county road commissioners of Bay 

 county have announced the following commit- 

 tees: Ways and Means Commissioners 

 Fletcher, Lints. Schweinsbcrg. Claims and 

 Accounts Commissioners Chat field. Fletcher, 

 Lints. Construction Commissioners Lints, 

 Chatfield, Schwcinsbcrg. Committee on Roads 

 Commissioner Campbell. Mi'dland. Auburn, 

 Garfield, Fishervillc. State street. North Eu- 

 clid; Commissioner Fletcher, Tnscola. Ports- 

 mouth. Hotchkiss. Pinconning. Gibson: Corn 

 missioner Lints. Kawkawlin. N. Kawkawlin, 

 An Sable. Fischer. Beaver. Linwood; Commis- 

 sioner Schweinsberg, Frankcnlust. S. F.uclid. 

 Sal/burg. Elm. State road. Fra/.er. Saginaw: 

 Commissioner ( 'hat field. Quanniccassee, 

 Knight. Hampton. N. Hampton, Pine. Sanilac. 

 Merrill. The commissioners have agreed to 



The Delta county road commissioners, con- 

 sisting of John Gasman, chairman: 11. W. Reid 

 and Frick Anderson, has awarded the contract 

 for the construction of 5,71)2 feet of road in 

 the village of Bark River to the Solid Rock 

 Paving and Construction Company for the 

 sum of ?4.1UO. It was agreed that the com- 

 missioners would pay the engineering ex- 

 penses of laying out, making profiles, etc., of 

 the two miles to be built in Fscanaba town- 

 ship. 



GOOD ROAD BUILDING. 



Excavate road bed for new road as in gen- 

 eral practice, grading as usual. Lay a line of 

 best four-inch to six-inch drain tile in center, 

 through entire length of road and below bot- 

 tom of road bed, say 8 to 12 inches. Put in 

 frequent tile lateral drains to ditches to dis- 

 pose of all water rapidly as it collects, says ;i 

 writer in Cincinnati Honk-Honk. 



Perfect drainage of road bed is of vital im- 

 portance. Cover entire bottom of road bed 

 with one inch of one and one-half inch chest- 

 nut boards laid crosswise. When the road is 

 boggy better use two-inch chestnut plank to 

 insure greater stability. 



Then by best known method, place on top 

 of boards a layer of broken stone say three 

 inches or four inches, levelling and rolling 

 moderately and crushing stone fiat. Place on 

 top of stone a layer of coarse concrete of 

 usual thickness and level and roll hard and 

 fairly smooth, with a crowning surface. 



Assuming the road bed thus made to be 11 

 feet in width at surface, then lay two lines of 

 old (standard size) railroad rails 10 feet apart 

 and resting upon flat tie bars, say three-fourth 

 of an inch by three inches, with two lugs upon 

 upper side and at each side of bars or ties to 

 bold line of rails rigidly in place and prevent 

 their turning over. These are retaining rails 

 or curbs. Tie bars to be placed under rails 

 from 8 feet to 10 feet apart as may be deter- 

 mined. The rails are to be connected end- 

 wise as in railroad use. 



The Swedish government has appointed a 

 tariff commission in preparation lor a thor- 

 ough revision of the tariff in 11)10. 



Although Mexico has an enormous cattle 

 industry the country is very short on dairy 

 products. Butter from Topeka and Abilene, 

 Kan., 500 to 1,800 pounds a week, .is sold by 

 three American groceries in Mexico city. 

 Cheese from Pennsylvania is also freely sold. 

 In Mexico city today one of the trying ques- 

 tions is the scarcity, quality, and dearness of 

 milk and its sanitary condition, as well as the 

 methods of its production and sale. In the 

 interior towns for weeks at a time not a pound 

 of Mexican cheese is found on the market, and 

 when found it is poor in quality. In the whole 

 country there is a good field for American 

 dairy products, the imports of which have 

 doubled in three years from $1,570,077 in l'J05 

 to $3,1 00,5!)! in 1008. 



In HIOS fiscal year Mexico made $123,285,312 

 kilos (kilo equals 2.2 pounds) of sugar, 70,- 

 1)47,573 kilos of molasses, and 50,000,000 kilos 

 of panela. 



