12 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



law. And here we have the county authorities 

 themselves practically in rebellion with the law 

 and state in the enforcement of the simple 

 rule or law, "Thou shall not steal." In other 

 words, we made laws and provided courts, 

 but we have nc.t provided a machine to en- 

 force the law, and what little we have of this 

 we keep "handcuffed" by lack of power and 

 the methods of election. To the friends of 

 forestry this lesson is of value chieflly because 

 it tells the main Ircuble in any effort at pro- 

 tecting our forests against fire and vandal. 



LUMBERMEN IN EARNEST. 

 Any orfe looking through ihe pages of such 

 an excellent paper as the Southern Lumber- 

 man cannot help but realize thai the lumber- 

 man as large holders of timberlands are be- 

 coming thoroughly awake to the new order 

 of things and the possibilities in a better 

 handling of their properties. It is no longer 

 the old time boast of large cuts of timber and 

 the steady lament of a poor market. It is 

 a paper full of good discussion of how to 

 "bridge over" from the old way to the new. 

 The discussion of "Odd lenglhs" plans an 

 enormous saving of malerial. The discussions 

 of forest protection and laxalion by the lum- 

 bermen at their conventions, rest clearly and 

 safely on a firm belief in the "betler way." 

 In addilion one is slruck and delighted with 

 the liberality and accuracy with which all 

 regular forestry doings are reporled in these 

 journals and il is clear lhal ihe "old days" 

 are gone for good. A new era is ushered in 

 and much of its vim and good will is evidently 

 due to ihe advent of younger men, whose 

 schooling is of the present and not of the past. 



LOUISIANA WANTS HER TIMBER 

 LANDS. 



The supreme court of the state of Louisiana 

 recently considered a case in which the state 

 is trying to. recover about 900,000 acres of 

 bollom lands from a land and timber com- 

 pany, who secured the tract by purchase from 

 the Levee Board for $130,000, on the ground 

 that there existed fraud and bribery. What- 

 ever the truth may be, it teaches the old 

 lesson: Absolute lack of any foresight and 

 concern for public good on the part of the 

 state government which allows a levee board 

 to fool away property at its own sweet will. 



And, secondly, it illustrates a serious eco- 

 nomic situalion which has misled and is now 

 misleading our people all over ihe ccunlry, 

 and is also misleading our slale and nalional 

 authorities. The fact that in certain parts 

 of Louisiana bottom lands covered with fine 

 hardwood timber are being given away by 

 incompetent levee boards is accepted as an 

 indication of our timber supplies, whereas it 

 is merely an indication of political short- 

 comings. 



USING KING DRAG ON HILLS. 



We are all familiar with the construction of 

 the King drag. Now, instead of making this 

 drag rigid by tight mortices, lenons, etc., we 

 use two 4 by 6 inch crosspieces with 3 by 6 

 inch tenons six inches long on each end. The 

 shoulders of these tenons are milered each 

 way from the center. These fit mortices in 

 each end of the plank. The mortices are mit- 

 ered from ihe center to each side. The tenons 

 are secured with one inch hardwood pins out- 

 side of the plank, thus allowing the frame to 

 oscillate. The utility < A this may be seen when 

 we want l carry the dirt all one way on side 

 hills, etc. We pull through as far as desired, 

 then change the team, hitch to the opposite 

 side, turn around and continue moving the dirt 

 as before. If properly made this drag will 

 pull in a direct line and do better work. 



When the highway is cut through a hill it is 

 desired to keep reducing the grade. To this 

 end work the mail against "lie bank, leaving 

 a dilch on one side only. Turn all the water 

 from above and along the hill into this ditch. 

 Plow it in repeatedly each season. After ihis 

 trench ha-, washed too much fur safety smooth 



this side and change the ditch to the opposite 

 side of the road and repeat. You will be .sur- 

 prised at ihe change in sleepness effected in 

 ten or twelve years. W. S. Wiley in Good 

 Roads Magazine. 



PROPER DRAINAGE ESSENTIAL. 



F. P. Spalding, a highway engineer of Col- 

 umbia, Mo., says: 



Gravel or broken stone when used for a 

 road is intended to form a hard .surface, which 

 will resist the wear of the traffic and which 

 will shed the water without softening in rainy 

 weather cr when snow is melting. The gravel, 

 or ma'cadam, is not in itself a rigid struclure, 

 bul depends upon the firmness of ihe earth 

 below to carry the loads which come upon it. 

 The object of the gravel is to make the surface 

 harder and more resistant to wear and ihe 

 action of water than the earth surface lhal it 

 replaces, and it can only be effective when 

 ihe road below it is properly shaped and drain- 

 ed and when the surface has such form as to 

 cause the water which falls upon it to quickly 

 run off withcut penetrating the road. 



Filling mudholes with gravel is not making 

 a gravel road. This is only wasting good ma- 

 terial. I can recall a mudhole into whcih 

 gravel was regularly dumped every spring for 

 years, and each time when the ground thawed 

 out in the following spring the mud was again 

 on top and ready to swallow another dose of 

 gravel. Probably there is enough gravel in 

 thai hole, 200 or 300 feel long, lo make a mile 

 of good gravel road. Finally a road super- 

 visor came along, who put in a few hundred 

 feet of tile and crowned the road surface, and 

 there has been no mudhole there since. 



The form which should be given to an 

 earth roadbed and the melhods of drainage to 

 be used depend in each instance upon ihe local 

 condilions surrounding the road. The ability 

 of earth to sustain a load depends in a large 

 measure upon the amount of water contained 

 by it. Mosl earth forms a good foundation 

 so long as it is kept dry, but when wel il 

 loses its sustaining power, becoming incoher- 

 ent. When softened by water soil is easily 

 displaced by the settling of the road or forced 

 upward into any space that may exist in it. In 

 order, therefore, lhat the loads may be uni- 

 formly sustained and the surface of the road 

 kept firm and even it is of first importance 

 that the roadbed be kept dry. The improve- 

 ment and maintenance of a road are therefore 

 largely questions of drainage, the objects being 

 to prevent water frcm reaching the road and 

 to provide means for immediately removing 

 such as does reach it before the soil becomes 

 saluraled and softened. 



roads in thai county, and with the awakening 

 has come the determination to compete with 

 the other townships in the matter of first- 

 class highways. The lownship has voled 

 $5,000 for permanent road work for this year, 

 and ihis sum will be increased nexl year and 

 every year until the township can boast thai 

 there are no betler roads in Hillsdale county 

 lhan within the confines of Reading township. 

 Heretofore Reading, which has ihe largest 

 assessed valuation of any township in Hills- 

 dale county, has been very niggardly in its 

 appropriation for road work. 



A movement has been starled at Batlle 

 Creek lo open a new highway for the benefil 

 of the Bedford township farmers who frequent 

 Battle Creek. It is proposed to grade and ex- 

 tend West Van Buren streel from Limil slreel 

 lo West, Main, giving ihe rural population in 

 lhat vicinity a new thoroughfare by which to 

 enter the city. 



Every since the double tracking of Wesl 

 Main the farmers have complained lhal ihey 

 are unable to drive into Batlle Creek with a 

 load of hay owing to the narrow read on 

 either side of ihe track. They also experienced 

 this difficulty somewhat before the double 

 track was laid, for in one or two seclions 

 Wesl Main slreel is very narrow near the city 

 limits. 



If West Van Buren street is extended to 

 West Main street, then ihe farmers could 

 come inlo the city without traversing any 

 narrow slreel. 



The Beard of Trade of Mt. Pleasant has 

 a good roads committee. This committee 

 has been instructed to work oul a plan for 

 the improvement of all roads leading into the 

 city. H. A. Sanford is chairman of ihe com- 

 mittee. The committee has already induced 

 Union township to begin good road work. 

 Supervisor McLachlan has offered to supply 

 free gravel for oi:e mile cf road running wesi 

 from the city. 



Davison township, Genesce county, is strong 

 for good roads this year. The township will 

 issue bonds for $3,500 to build stale reward 

 roads, and in addilion will raise $1,500 by 

 taxation. Wtih $1,500 left over from last year, 

 ihe lownship will have $6,500 lo expend on 

 good roads this year. 



Newberg was the first township in Cass 

 county to attempt state reward roads. It 

 is now in readiness lo complele ihe work and 

 receive its allowance from the state. 



MICHIGAN ROAD NOTES. 



Antioch township, Wexford county, has 

 voted to bond for $2,000 for good roads. 



The board of supervisors of Mecosta county 

 will probably condemn ihe Paris toll road, 

 one of the few now in operation in Michigan. 



The township board of Eckford, Calhoun 

 county, has completed its plans for the build- 

 ing of the macadam road on which the Con- 

 solidated Slone and Gravel Company de- 

 faulled last fall. 



The Marquette Stone Company has begun 

 operations again at its quarry near Chocolay. 

 No quarry work has been slarled as yet, and 

 the large pile of rock quarried out last sum- 

 mer will be crushed before more is quarried 

 out. P. B. Spear, the manager, anticipates a 

 very good season and already has closed sev- 

 eral large contracts. The company is 

 rhiclly engaged in the manufacture of road- 

 making material, large quantities of which are 

 marketed in lower Michigan, as well as in the 

 upper peninsula. 



Reading township, Hillsdale county, has 

 awakened to the facl lhal il has the poorest 



La Grange township, Cass county, has 

 voted to build two miles of state reward road 

 this year. One mile of this road is to be 

 constructed on the north and south road run- 

 ning through Whitmanville. Half a mile is to 

 run north from the old Kinsbury farm, and 

 the other half mile is to run east from the 

 corporation limits of Cassopolis to the Penn 

 township line. This is the Diamond Lake 

 road. 



Tecumseh township, Lenawee county, has 

 voted $1,700 for road bridge work. 



In accord with the progressive movement 

 for good- roads which was instituted in Elk- 

 land township, Tuscola county, under the lead 

 ership of A. A. McKenzie, then supervisor, 

 and P. A. Koepfgen, highway commissioner, 

 five years ago, the township has voted to con- 

 slrucl two more miles of stale reward road 

 ihis summer. The roads chosen for this im- 

 provement are the mile running south from 

 the Bethel church and the mile between the 

 East river bridge and the county line, east of 

 Cass City. Bolh roads are al the end of roads 

 which were improved under state aid in for- 

 mer years. 



St. Charles township, Saginaw county, will 

 spend $10.000 on good roads this year, the 

 electors having voted that amount on April 19. 



