8 ' MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MICHIGA N any hetter vva - v in wllich tlle movement from THE GOOD ROADS MISSIONARY. 



^.^ TXO the country to the city can he checked than All honor to the man who is working for 



j~\v_y./\..LxiJ AND f 1 V^/fVLjiJ 1 >^ through the establishment, everywhere, of good roads. If you have any spare time, be- 



good reads system? I venture to assert that ccme a good roads missionary. The resi- 



Orfidal Paper of The Michigan Road Makers Association and 



Michigan Forestry Association. if the energy expended in preaching the doc- dent of any township in Michigan who does 



70 Larned Street West, Detroit, Michigan. trine of "Back to the land" were devoted to the most toward the securing of good roads 



advancing the good roads movement, condi- for his locality will leave behind him a record 



Entered as Second-class Miner April 27, 1907, at the Post office at De- ticus would soon be altered and the flow of that will be worth more than will any monu- 



troit. Michigan, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. . r i_ 1 1 



_^^________^^___^^^___^_^^^_ population would be from the city to the ment of marble or granite that may be erected 



countrv. at his grave in the cemetery. If you wish 



Frank E. Carter ....................... Editor * 



_ Someone has said that land without man is to live in the hearts of your fellow townsmen, 



a desert; man without land is a mob. The 8 to work in earnest on the important pro- 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH workers fcr good roads, by helping to bring Ject of improving your highways. Your ef- 



By the landless man out to the manless land are forts may not be appreciated now, but they 



THE STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., it seems to me, aiding in no small degree in wllt '>e "i the future. 



- the solution of one of the most perplexing 



SUBSCRIPTION, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, problems cf our times. GOOD ROADS ASSOCIATION AT VAS- 



PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. With the rapid extension of our industrial SAR. 



_.._.__^ _ ^^^^^ life and the opportunities offered in business A good reads association has been organized 



and in the professions the cities have called at Vassar. W. J. Spears is president and E. 



ROADWAY WIDTHS. upf)n the country for clear brains and vigorous w - Ellis > secretary. A committee of 10 has 



Pasadena, Cal., has adopted a basis of pro- bodies to such an extent that large areas have been appointed to act with the officers in 



portioning roadway and sidewalk widths become so depopulated of active and vigorous pushing the movement in that section of Tus- 



which is novel. This basis is apparently the m i n ds and bodies that the stcck is insufficient cola county. 



assumption that the roadway traffic on the to repeople the country districts. The result 



street is largely proportional to the length has been that some of the most fertile lands USING OIL ON STREETS. 



of that street; that is, the greatest amount r jght here in Michigan, some of the most ^ ' ar J? e "umber cf villages and small cities 



of traffic follows the longest highways. In f ert n e lands of the world, have been left in '" Michigan will this year experiment with nil 



general the rule embodying this idea is that, a condition of practical if not actual abandon- on "npavcd streets, instead of sprinkling the 



for streets having a total width of 65 feet or rnent, and the price of provisions has increased thoroughfares with water. It is figured that 



less, the roadway shall- have a certain mini- f or t h e simple reason that there are not people oilin g the roads will save municipalities ma 



mum width up to a total street length of to act ually work the soil and to raise the crops thousands of dollars in the course of a 



1,500 feet; that for lengths from 1,500 to 3,000 nece ssary to feed the nonproducing popula- years. _ 



feet this width should be increased by two t ion O f the cities 



feet; between 3,000 and 5,000 feet by two addi- Jf eyery ' of this State was easy of MICHIGAN ROAD NOTES. 



tional feet, and if over 5,000 feet long a third accesg fc means of d roa{] u would a 



mcrement of two feet shall be added. The , remed this ccndition of thi Vernon township Isabella county, has voted 



mmimum roadway widths vary from 20 feet for S not *, WQuld {he farmg then be ied $1,500 for the building of a state reward roa, 



on a 40-foot street to 30 feet on a 65-foot fc jce Q{ ^ ]and wou]d be materially $*97 for general read improvement and i 



street. The idea is an interesting one, and . d for the road repair fund. The township 



has been worked cut in such a way as to meet a balance of about $900 in its road fund. 



a number of questions, such as the method After a11 ' the c l ues t'on resolves itself into 



of determining the future length of a street one of education. It is strange to me, though, Clare county farmers voted down the count) 



seeing that many of them will undoubtedly that on no 1 uestion pertaining to his calling road system on April 4. The vote of th, 



be extended with the growth of the city does the ordina ry farmer manifest so great farmers against the proposition was a sur 



The Wexford county road commissioners a misconception as upon the subject of good prise. Clare needs good roads if the count- 



have rejected all -bids for building state re- roads ' II is pretty generally admitted that the is to compete with her sister counties. 



ward roads in that county. Commissioners farmer like the rest of us is after the dollar 



C. E. Haynes, Fred Usewick and T E Stan- 1 am therefore convinced that if the farmers Four years^ age, says Postmaster . 



cliff had asked for figures on ten miles of of Michigan can only be shown that better kirkbnde, of Clare, when I bought my tan, 



roads and the bids were too high they con- roads are to their Pecuniary advantage and out in Sheridan, there was only one mile 



sidered, being from $200 to $500 a mile higher that the y benefit them " ot on ^ financially graveled road the entire ten miles. Now ther 



than they believe they can build the roads but Politically and socially more than any are only two miles not graveled. 



for themselves. other class of our people, then they will all township has voted to bond for $6,00i 



'_ _ be converted and those of us who are consid- roads, the Arthur-Hatton town line activit 



ered good roads cranks will have plenty of and Grant township's proposal for half a mil 



BAD ROADS A STUMBLING BLOCK. disciples. of state award road on both the Dover an 



"I hold that the building of good roads is It shoulcl a i ways be kept in mind the fact state reads are evidences of a desire for b 



the thing which should enlist the most serious that coun ty roads are built with money raised tcr roaiis But one fact is evldent 



attention of the farmer, because the improve- on every dollar - s worth of assessed propcrty county should be getting more money out < 



ment cf the country roads is the first great in Mich j gan and f arrnerS) whi]e neglecting the State rcward f " nd ' Grant townsh 'P 



step in the improvement of living conditions their own roads are , a , engaged in the had two slices of $500 each, and that is all. 



on the farm, says John I Gibson scrrptarv t 



of the Western Michigan Developmen Bu 1*", SS ' nary bus.ness-paying taxes The township of Fremo Tusco , a ,, 



toward thc state reward road fu d - whlch IS will raise $2.000 for highway improve,,,,,, 



"The ordinary country read, especially in ''""f SPe ' U ^'T -n- "*" T*' ^ ^ this year, of which $1,000 will be expend, 



...... ' good money, are building roads, in the coun- . , ... , ,, ... 



Michigan, ,s a stumbling block to all real ties under the CQU road Thes >" the v.llage of Mayv.lle. 



progress and the one reason above all other's i i i 



.... counties which have adopted the county road n-ivtnn townshin Tnscoli rountv has voti 



which looks country life so objectionable and u -u- r ua>to nip, i ruy, n 



system are building four times as much good fo i )M i] r i fwri rnilps nf state reward road 01 



which draws so maiiv of the young oconle , , 



read as the counties which are not under it. mile rimmntr from the villne-r of Mavvil 

 from the country to seek employment in the 



f jtjp s .ast and the other running from the villa! 



Ihe committee on roads and bridges of the , ^-\ \ 



I Feel that it is imperative that some action board of supervisors of Grand Traverse conn- 



he taken to make farm life more agreeable ty is as follows: E. E. Champion, John An- The township of Forest. Genesee count 



and remunerative; and I ask you. Is there derson and Thomas Shilson. ha, voted to bond $10,000 for good roads. 





