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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- 

 troit, Michigan, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



Frank E. Carter.... ..Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 

 THE STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., 



SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



FORESTRY CRITICS ANSWERED. 



Of late there has been a tendency in cer- 

 tain quarters to criticize the national policy 

 of forest preservation. Occasionally we also 

 hear reforestation by Michigan condemned by 

 people of our own state. As is generally the 

 case where a constructive policy is adopted, 

 those who condemn it speak in generalities of 

 unproved and unsupported allegations. Now 

 a few concrete and indisputable facts furnished 

 by men who and whose business it is to know, 

 are worth volumes of prejudiced and reckless 

 criticism. R. S. Kellogg, assistant forester at 

 Washington, effectually shatters the claims of 

 the opposition that tree conservation and re- 

 production are being overworked. Mr. Kel- 

 logg presents facts and figures which show 

 that at the rate at which the forests of the 

 United States are being cut, without making 

 sufficient allowance for new growth, the trees 

 are disappearing three times as fast as they 

 are being renewed. This is not a hasty con- 

 clusion. It is the result of careful observation 

 and study of records. The figures prove that, 

 great as is our stock of timber, we are using 

 it up at a rate which means exhaustion at no 

 distant day. 



Efforts have been made to minimize the 

 force of such statements. Not long ago some- 

 one desirous of discrediting the zeal of the 

 government in forest conservation undertook 

 to prove that there are trees enough at the 

 present time, even without reforestation, to 

 supply the demand for lumber for fifty years 

 at least, and this was hailed as a triumphant 

 rejoinder to the conservators. In reality it 

 was a practical confirmation of what intelli- 

 gent and well-informed advocates of forestry 

 have affirmed. 



What are fifty-three years in the history of a 

 country? What is a half-century? If there were 

 no other assurance than this from the oppo- 

 nents of conservation the people might well 

 be aroused to keen concern. Furthermore, it 

 is certain that whatever conditions pertain to- 

 day will be accentuated and that the discrep- 

 ancy between the removal of timber and its 

 replenishing will become larger and larger 

 with each year of national growth and de- 

 mand. Increasing demands for farm lands 

 alone will lead to heavier encroachments upon 

 the wooded area, and this will mean corres- 

 ponding reduction of the available timber 



supply. 



The only safe way to maintain a supply of 



timber for luture use is to preserve the for- 

 ests from wasteful cutting and to increase the 

 number of trees that can be turned into lum- 

 ber. This is what the government through its 

 forestry work is aiming to do. It is what tin- 

 state of Michigan, and other states, through 

 their forestry departments, arc striving to 

 bring about. The people of the country and 

 the people of Michigan will be accorded wise 

 in their day and generation if they sustain this 

 movement and support the officials and others 

 who have taken the lead to further it. Sagi- 

 naw News. 



parties liable for the costs of cutting with an 

 additional levy of 10 per cent, which will be 

 levied as taxes against the property. 



HORATIO S. EARLE. 



DIGEST OF SPECIAL CHANGES IN THE 

 REVISED GOOD ROADS LAW. 



Highway commissioners and township 

 boards in Michigan had heretofore since 1907 

 no power to purchase road machinery. Now 

 the commissioner under the direction of the 

 township board may purchase such road ma- 

 chinery or tools as they may deem advisable, 

 and pay forsame in not more than four years' 

 time, but the payment in any one year cannot 

 exceed 'die-eighth of one per cent on the as- 

 sessed valuation of the township. 



Improvements to roads and bridges must be 

 of a permanent nature and before beginning 

 such improvement a survey must be made and 

 a grade established. The new law goes quite 

 into detail regarding the making of survey and 

 profile. There must be a turnpike that will 

 shed water, and ditches or gutters suitable for 

 carrying it off the road. The width of the 

 turnpike cannot be less than eighteen feet, nor 

 bridges less than sixteen feet clear roadway, 

 and the bridges built hereafter must be capable 

 of carrying a ten-ton moving load. 



In some localities heretofore it has seemed 

 to be the custom in building bridges or cul- 

 verts across a drain in the first instance to 

 make them just as cheaply as possible regard- 

 less of any strain that might be put upon 

 them, leaving them in a year or two to be 

 rebuilt at the expense of the township. Now 

 the law requires that these bridges and cul- 

 verts shall be built of sufficient strength to 

 safely carry a ten-ton load. 



Many times a county drain commissioner 

 goes ahead and lays out a drain along a public 

 highway without reference to the use of the 

 highway for purposes of travel, and will so 

 far encroach upon it as to make it practically 

 unsafe. In the future no such drain can be 

 laid without consulting the highway commis- 

 sioner and obtaining his consent as to the pro- 

 posed location, and such consent must be 

 given in writing and must state how close to 

 the center line of the highway any excava- 

 tion may be made. 



The date of the cutting of brush in the high- 

 ways has been changed from the first of 

 November to the first of July, and there have 

 been many changes in the law regarding the 

 cutting of noxious weeds. Hereafter all nox- 

 ious weeds along the highway abutting the 

 property must be taken care of and cut by the 

 owner of the property. Personal notices will 

 not be served on him, as has been the case 

 heretofore, but printed notices will be posted 

 up fixing a date when all such weeds, together 

 with those on the farms, must be cut. Failure 

 to cut them by the time stated will make the 



PENNSYLVANIA'S ROAD BUILDING 

 TOO GOOD. 



The state of Pennsylvania appropriated $3,- 

 000,000 to be spent during the next two years 

 in the construction of a good road from Phila- 

 delphia to Pittsburg and on to the Ohio state 

 line. The distance is to be about 360 miles, 

 which makes the average cost per mile $8,300. 

 Inasmuch as the route will doubtless follow to 

 a large extent, highways now in use, much of 

 which is already fairly "good roads," the ex- 

 penditure of such a sum, if honesty applied, 

 cannot fail of superior results. 



The plan, however, is to be regretted. 



As an example of high grade road building 

 to the rest of the state it is of doubtful value, 

 because of its very excellence. Few counties 

 and fewer townships could or would feel able 

 or inclined to duplicate it locally. On the con- 

 trary, on account of its cost, it places an argu- 

 ment in the mouths of those opposing the good 

 roads movement calculated to create adverse 

 opinion. 



Vastly better would be the distribution of 

 this money on a basis, say, of $2,000 a mile, to 

 such counties as would spend an equal amount 

 of their own money. This would provide for 

 1,500 miles of excellent roads; as $4,000 a mile 

 spent on present highways would make a real- 

 ly good road where road material is as abund- 

 ant as i tis in Pennsylvania. This is the plan 

 which has been adopted elsewhere, and is found 

 not only to stimulate the desire for good roads, 

 but enables any and all parts of the state to be 

 equally benefited. 



GRATIOT FARMERS NEED PRODDING. 



State Highway Commissioner Ely was in 

 Gratiot county recently and made an effort to 

 induce those in charge of a road north of St. 

 Louis to continue work on it. The road in 

 question is about a mile and a half long and 

 lies at the four corners of Bethany and Pine 

 River townships in Gratiot county and Coe 

 township in Isabella county and Jasper town- 

 ship in Midland county. It is a main traveled 

 road and has been leveled, ditched and put into 

 such shape that comparatively little would be 

 needed to make it a state award road. 



Mr. Ely, after inspecting it thoroughly, pro- 

 nounced it one of the best pieces of road, as 

 far as it had gone, that he had ever seen. The 

 grading is excellent, and that the road work 

 should stop when so near completion is a 

 source of much regret. 



The reason for the abandonment of work 

 seems to be lack of funds. The expense of the 

 improvement falls mostly in Jasper township 

 and its funds are used up and not enough in- 

 terest seems to have been taken to warrant 

 any move that would lead to the completion 

 of the road. The highway commissioner does 

 not feel like taking the initiative when no one 

 seems to care one way or the other, and there 

 the matter stands. 



Mr. Ely says that $1,100 or $1,200 would put 

 the road in such shape as would make it a 

 state award road, and for this the township 

 would draw $500 a mile or $750 for the mile 

 and a half stretch, leaving a balance to be 

 raised of only $450 at the very outside. This 

 expenditure would guarantee a road that 

 would last a lifetime, while the road in its 

 present condition will last two or three years. 



