MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



JIOOD ROADS PROGRESS 



IN MICHIGAN STATE 



| ALGER MAKING GREAT PROGRESS. 



factory progress in mad building was 



!i Alger county the past .season. The 



d between Trenary and the Delta 



lounty line ulx ul three miles long -is now 



completed. This is a fine piece of 



Aiding of which will be of immense 



Mvantage to the people of southern Alger 



[onnty, t" their nearby Delta county neigh- 



[ors and to many who in the future will avail 



of the opportunity to visit Alger 



j in automobiles. 



I I \vo and one-half miles of the Minn-iim- 



:n county road have al-o been macad- 



with the F.ben rock and surfaced with 



trap rock. In all eight and one- 



of county roads have been so 



hignways that have no supe- 



luals. 



A GOOD ROADS LESSON. 



Then I object lesson given the 



day in behalf of y.;od roads in Grand 



at was a little out of the orrinary 



\ay of an argument in favor of ( an ex- 



rk in the territory contiguous 



I'ity. On that day a family who 



even miles mm the city ran out of 



in the grocery line, and the 



in use had to \\-alk to the city and 



;.rry back what was needed, because the roads 



o bad that it was impossible to get a 



am through them. This might seem a little 



lied, but it is nevertheless a fact that 



For by -onie of the business men 



who know the condition' of 



ds that lie between the woman's farm 



he city. 



Plymouth has been completed, extending past 

 James Joy's house. That constructed a year 

 ago suffered considerably frem the heavy loads 

 gravel drawn over it with the heavy road 



Oakland. County. 



A mi for January 5 in Pontiac is 



pectei an important bearing on the 



'ild a c ntinii! us concrete road 



and Detroit. The l-.u-huav 



- Of I Oakland, Vtacomb and Wayne 



to meet in i'ontiac on that date, 



the auspices of the 



mmiss.ii n. The bi ard of su- 



iil be in ere at that time 



on will endeavor to 



supervisors in the county go '1 



inert. 



Muskegcn Ccunty. 



1 f the I loin n road, hither- 

 the township high.way and cxtend- 

 .ur.crly Ini 



i :h acro.-s the railroad right- 

 b) the hi ard of c iinty 

 lissioners as a county highway. 

 :npro\ed c rrty road now extends to 

 of Holt n. The in- 

 improve the n ad north throng'; 

 ind beyond also. The lir-l appr - 

 .i.-ked for will probably be 

 half mile of the road in the 



Ingham Ccunty. 



- ' ip are waking 



ct that good c r.ntry road- are 

 ''' ti red, and the farmers are tak- 



Od per cent of them 

 iting using automobiles. . 

 the machires sold here the last 



i.' ugl-t by farmers. As there are 



ivel beds in the township an at- 

 !'< Wl 'V t" buv a bed in Rive- and 



\el here over the electric road. 

 effort will also be made to pure: ase ,, 



e crusher ard utilize the mi'i'm- 

 ! M-pply of stone in the farmers' fields in 

 d building. I.c-lie township has the i:n- 

 reprtati. n of having the w r-l : 



on, Onondaga, Henrietta and other 

 ps having taken the lead in tin- im- 

 plverflent 



Wayne County. 

 ' he second mile of good road east out of 



ul gravel drawn over t wth te eavy roa 

 engines while the ground was soft. When 

 the final dressing and leveling is done in the 

 spring it will be a line stretch of first-class 

 road. . 



Macomb County. 



By agreement of the Macomb County super- 

 visors about .-even miles of new concrete pave- 

 ment on the lake shore road and six miles on 

 the (Iratiot road are practically assured. Lake 

 township once \led to bond for road building, 

 but the vote wa* declared illegal on a techni- 

 cality. People of the western part of the 

 ti wnship opposed the improvement, but it is 

 now very probable that the township will vote 

 In nds and carry out the proposed road im- 

 provement, which means two fine highways 

 ,rom Detroit to the Math City. 

 Charlevcix County. 



An enthusiastic good r, ,.ds meeting was held 

 at East Jordan at which it was brought out 

 that tl.e only solution of the problem there 

 will be stone roads, this material being there 

 readily available. Application has been made 

 lor a state award road in Jordan Township 

 leading into Kast Jordan, and there is money 

 enough in the improvement fund to buy the 

 materia'. Prospects are good for further im- 

 provements. Many of the supervisors are in 

 favor of trying the county roads system, and 

 it is expected the people will be asked to vote 

 up; n the question in the spring. 

 Houghton County. 



I'ortage tc wnship board will, at the annual 

 M'l'i'iK caucus of the township in April, rec- 

 ommend that the peop'e authorize a large ap- 

 propriation for mad purposes. This will be 

 Si niewhat of an innovation, for although the 

 law provides for this action, it has never been 

 taken advantage of in Portage township. 



Menominee County. 



County Engineer Sawyer, of Menominee, 

 states that about seven or eight miles of road, 

 beginning at a point about \ Smiles from the 

 center of the city of Menominee. will be prac- 

 tically .'ebuilt as a new road. The other portion 

 will be repaired and placed in such condition 

 that it will be as good as new. 



It is a question whether the county will go 

 m for slate awards or not. If this is done it 

 will be necessary to tear out all of the culverts ers." 



on the entire stretch of road and replace them 

 with stone. .It is not known whether this 

 would be practicable because the extra ex- 

 pense the road commissioners would have to 

 go to would mean almost as much as the state 

 award. 



Bay County. 



The county road commission have decided 

 to put at least 75,000 gallons of oil on the 

 roads in Bay county next year. During the 

 past two or three years oiling the roads has 

 been tried in several sections as an experiment, 

 and the plan has proved so successful in build- 

 ing up the thoroughfares that next year many 

 more miles than ever before will be oiled. 

 Last year there was only 35,000 gallons of oil 

 used on the county roads. The oil costs about 

 $3.16 for 100 gallons and 75,000 gallons will 

 cost $2,730. More than that amount may be 

 used, however, for the committee provided that 

 75,000 gallons should be the minimum. 



Alger County. 



During the season just closed two. and one- 

 halt miles oi the Munising-Chatham road in 

 Alger county, have been macadamized with 

 then rock and surfaced with Marquette trap 

 rock In all eight and one-half miles of the 

 road have been treated, making a highway that 

 has no superior and few equals. A good de- 

 mand is made for Marquette trap rock for 

 road surfacing and the plant producing it has 

 no trouble in disposing of its product. 



NO FORTUNE IN HEMLOCK 



Making fortunes as the lumber disappears?" 

 says Thornton A. Green of Ontonagon, one of 

 he leading lumbermen in the upper peninsula 

 Well, hardly! Just now it looks as if most 

 >t the dealers in northern Michigan, especially 

 the hemlock men, were pretty close to bank- 

 ruptcy, and I guess that most of them would 

 be glad to sell out for 60 cents on the dollar. 



"One of the main reasons is because we 

 cannot cut our hemlock and market it against 

 the competition of the southern yellow pine 

 men with any profit. At that, too, they can 

 cut as much in a month as we can in a year. 

 One prominent lumberman in Wisconsin of- 

 fered to give the lumber on his million acres 

 of timberland to anyone who would cut it off 

 and remove the stumps so that the land could 

 be used agriculturally, but he found no tak- 



