8 



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 P&st Office at De- 

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



Frank F.. Carter Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 



THE STATE: HKVIKW PUBLISHING cb 



SUBSCRIPTION t ONE DOLLAR A YEAH, 

 PVYAHI.K IN ADVANCE!. 



HIGHWAY COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 



The state highway commission has issued a 

 report which gives a history of the depart- 

 ment's work from Dec. 31, 1908, to July 1, 

 I'.MO, as well as the annual report from July 

 1. 1 !!(>!> to June 30, 1910. Succeeding reports 

 will cover the same fiscal year. 



According to the 1910 report, state reward 

 was paid on approximately 187 miles of road, 

 about equally divided between stone, macad- 

 am and gravel. During the same length of 

 time the department received applications for 

 reward for 292 miles of road. From the or- 

 ganization of the department to the beginning 

 of the last fiscal year, 341.09 miles of state 1 

 reward road were built, $254,126 paid and a 

 total of $261,130.75 reward money was still 

 pending. Last year 204,378 miles were con- 

 structed and $137,327 paid in rewards. Meri- 

 dian was the only township in Ingham county 

 building state reward roads last year. The 

 township expended $2,079.23 for 1,160 miles 

 and received a reward of $580 from the state. 

 One of the principal features of the report 

 which is filled with interesting tables, is the 

 table which shows just exactly what each 

 township did in state reward road construction 

 last season, as well as the money expended 

 and received. Since the state reward law be- 

 came effective', Ingham county has built 5,160 

 miles of state reward roads and received $3,580 

 from the state. Lansing township received 

 $2,500 in reward money. 



A number of interesting articles written by 

 Deputy Commissioner Rogerts, a nation good 

 roads authority, appear in the report and' the 

 '. roads laws and department requirements 

 are explained by articles, diagrams, maps and 

 cuts. Highway Commissioner Ely contributed 

 several of these articles. The report contains 

 dozens of photos of good roads in different 

 stages of construction. 



The heavy work of preparing the report 

 was performed by Chief Clerk Randall and 

 road experts who have inspected the report, 

 declare it is by far the most valuable publica- 

 tion the department has given out. 



department of the Mothers' congress. Mrs. 

 De Garmo outlines the general scope of ac- 

 tivities in her field as follows: 



"We have three plans for the education of 

 the farming class, so that the members will 

 not want to go to the city. One is a Mothers' 

 congress day at every state fair. We have 

 one in Louisiana, and the principal talks of 

 the day are on ideas of bettering roads. Then 

 there is the cadet system. 



"Louisiana now has an excellent one. The 

 cadets are organized exactly like the army, 

 with a state highway commissioner as general. 

 The smallest division is a platoon. These 

 boys have uniforms, a thing which sets them 

 up and teaches them the value of tidy dress. 

 They patrol the roads in their section. Where 

 repairs are needed they do the work. 



"The organization was made by army offi- 

 cers, and the department of agriculture is now 

 considering a national organization. Several 

 southern states have cadets. The third plan 

 of education is a Mothers' Congress Arbor 

 day. On this day the children are taught how 

 the trees should be spaced and how far back 

 from the roads they should be set. 



"These facts as well as household economies 

 are printed in the government bulletins of the 

 department of agriculture, which we distrib- 

 ute by the thousand. We offer the additional 

 incentive that trees will be planted first where 

 the roads are built for permanent purposes. 

 We try to construct a model road at the 

 state fairs, where the mothers have a day, and 

 at one end we build a model home, constructed 

 by children, while at the other end is a school. 

 For the construction of roads we ask the 

 county courts in Louisiana to sentence pris- 

 oners in jail cases to the roads. 



The good roads movement is spreading rap- 

 idly. There is probably not a state in the 

 union today in which the question is not being 

 agitated. No one of intelligence will refer 

 now to the question as a mere community 

 fad. The people are awakening to the fact 

 that good roads mean increased value to farms, 

 improved market facilities, and a closer bond 

 of unity between city and country." 



GOOD ROADS CADETS. 



Were Solomon alive today he might be dis- 

 posed 19 revise his claim that there is nothing 

 new under the sun. The versatility of the 

 American mind is keenly illustrated in the 

 way that even the women of the country have 

 taken up the subject of good roads and are 

 agitating ways and means for highway im- 

 ement. One of the most interesting is 

 the "Good Roads Cadet" plan evolved by Mrs. 

 Frank De Garmo, chairman of the good roads 



CHEAP BUT LASTING ROADWAY. 



Supt. of Public Wcrks Wm. Ferris of Lan- 

 sing, constructed last summer four blocks 

 of road on East Shiawassee street, after a plan 

 all his own. Those who were skeptical at the 

 time the road was building, now declare it to 

 'be one of the most lasting as well as the 

 cheapest read that the city has ever had con- 

 structed. Experts, who have examined it, de- 

 clare that it will last a half century with little 

 or no repair although the heaviest trucking 

 in the city is done over it. 



The cost of construction of the four blocks 

 of road was but $2,659.32 and the only place 

 where mr ney was spent outside of Lansing 

 was for the tar that was used in its make-up. 

 The stone, oils and labor were secured in 

 Lansing and the money was kept in circula- 

 tion there. 



The road was built as an experiment. For- 

 merly it had been an experiment for which 

 the city paid dearly. The old road bed was 

 leveled, 1,100 tons of crushed stone placed 

 upon it and about (>. Kill gall, ns of oil and pitch 

 used to cement the different layers of various 



sized stones. Four blocks of it were I mill 

 Superintendent Ferris did not have to pur 

 cha.-e curbing as that was already in and bu 

 very little cost was experienced in makinr 

 proper drainage as that had been fared foi 

 These items reduced the cost i-,f constructic 

 In so me extent. 



Had the superintendent bought curl' 

 provided for the drainage on the four block 

 of road that he built, the cost would hav 

 been increased perhaps $2,000 which would l:a\ 

 made the cost i, f four blocks of road .^ 

 instead of $2,659.32. Even at that the 

 ( f building the four blocks of Shiawji 

 street road would have been but $600 

 than Mie block i f brick paved road on 

 street. 





SAYS CONVICT SYSTEM 



NO GOOD IN MICHI 



E. C. Anthony, a member of the I!, .a 

 C ontrol of Marquette prison, who mad 

 trip of inspection with Gt.v. Warner and 

 Michigan men t,> western prisms, i- no 

 thusiastic on the question . f employing 

 vict labor i.n roads. Speaking of the p 

 at Canyon City, (.'oh;., he says: 



"In the prison proper the only work carri< 

 in, with the exception of the wi.rk done 

 the state shops run in connection with tl 

 ii:-titiitioii, such as tailor and cobble 

 is breaking of stone. At one end of the pri^ 

 enclosure is a precipitous n.cky bluff, p; 

 by guards. Four hundred men i r n 

 employed breaking rock. Their work 

 goi (I deal of a joke, and sctms to be ami 

 principally with the idea of keeping them hi 

 Tl'c convicts sit about the yard, each wit] 

 moderate si/ed hammer' in hand. Bef- 

 or on their knees, are small fragments of 

 fn m which they chip off pieces with 

 hammers. One small sized rock crusher 

 turn out more crushed rock in a day tha 

 small army of convicts working in this p 

 val manner. The rock is sold for cmicr 

 wi rk. and nets but a small return to the in 

 tution. 



"The distinctive feature of the pi 

 employment of the convicts on the roa 

 on the 'honor system'. F'orty miles of t< 

 the fifty-mile stretch between Canyon 

 and Colorado City have been built, and a 

 of seventy-convicts is now working on 

 highway. This gang of seventy men 

 ing entirely without guards, and umU 

 lion of a superintendent of highways. Tin 

 are no stockades about the camp and the 

 semblance of prison authority is a 

 mounted at night by a man with 

 gun. There were only five escapes fro 

 road gang during the past summer. 



"One thing that makes it feasible to 

 tain these camps without the whole wo 

 force taking wing is that fact that by vir 

 a special law every member of the road 

 ing gangs is allowed ten days' good ti 

 month for sticking to the job, over . 

 the usual good time provided for by 

 prison rules. The country in which tin- 

 is being carried on is inhospitable, 

 only one man on our trip eleven miles 

 the divide, and in the fifty miles between 

 yon City and Colorado City we didn't 

 more than five or six. It is a most unin 

 country for a convict to try to escape '" 

 convict who succeeded in making a ge 

 would have a hard time of it. and In 

 is almost certain. I" don't regard the 

 le.-i-.ible for this state. It wouldn't stand t 

 planting to the populous states of the m 

 west and east. The percentage oi 

 who could be employed without eon 

 guarding, with good chances to make a 

 away, would be so small as to make tl; 

 ment not worth while." 



