MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



15 



tain annual fixed charges, that the concrete 

 building will give a lower annual tax against 

 the enterprise that it is housing than will the 

 cheaper forms of construction. 



The second advantage is its fireproofness, 

 concrete being generally accepted by the in- 

 surance interests and the building world as 

 being itnequaled in its proproof qualities. Bal- 

 timore and San Francisco tested concrete and 

 found it good. Many individual fires through- 

 nut the country have subjected concrete floors, 

 beams, girders, and columns to most severe 

 conditions, with the result that the owners 

 of the buildings on fire have immediately aft- 

 er the extinguishing of the flames been able 

 to make use of their structures a condition 

 which has never been heard of in any other 

 type of building. 



The permanency of concrete cannot be 

 doubted. One hardly ever reads anything about 

 concrete without finding reference to its use 

 by the Romans and other ancients. To the 

 best of our knowledge, the concrete which we 

 are placing today is better than the old kind 

 of concrete. This for the reason that the 

 cement, which was used in the old days was 

 a natural but non-uniform material, whereas 

 our cement today is an artificial, chemically 

 uniform substance. Hundreds of tests of ce- 

 ment in all parts of the world have demon- 

 strated that it steadily increases in strength 

 for long periods of time, and that as far as 

 scientific judgment can foresee our concrete 

 structures are increasing and will continue to 

 increase in strength year by year. Concrete 

 is not only permanent, but actually grows 

 better. N. Y. Evening Post. 



BIG LOGGING CONTRACT. 



Warren Flanagan, of Iron Mountain, has 

 plans made for his logging operations in the 

 vicinity of Granite Bluff. He expects to log 

 about 2,000,000 feet of hardwood, hemlock and 

 cedar. Of this amount 1,000,000 feet of hard- 

 wood will go to the Von Platen Lumber Com- 

 pany, to be delivered at the company's new 

 sawmill at Iron Mountain; 500,000 feet of hem- 

 lock and 1.000 cords of pulpwood to the Kim- 

 berley-Clark Company. Niagara, 4,000 cedar 

 ties to the St. Paul Railroad Company, and his 

 entire output of cedar poles, posts and logs 

 to the Roper Lumber Company, Menominee. 

 In addition to the above, Mr. Flanagan has a 

 large contract with the Bristol Mining Com- 

 pany of Crystal Falls, for mining timber, which 

 includes 15,000 pieces of eight-foot logging. 

 Mr. Flanagan has given the contract to cut 

 and haul to the track 1,000,000 feet of hard- 

 wood and 500,000 feet of hemlock to Anton 

 Miench. The cedar, pulpwood and mining 

 timber Mr. Flanagan will cut with his own 

 crew. 



COUNTY ROAD SYSTEM FAVORED. 



Thirty-four of the counties of Michigan have 

 Med the county road system, which is tax- 

 ing the whole county for a fund to build 

 trunk line roads. They are Alger, Alpena, 

 Baraga, Bay, Benzie, Berrien, Cheboygan, 

 Chippewa, Delta. Dickinson, Emmett, Genesee, 

 Gladwin. Gogebic, Grand Traverse, loscn. 

 Iron, Kalkaska, Kalamazoo, Luce, Maniste'e, 

 Marquette, Mason, Mecosta, Menominee, Mis- 

 saukcc. Muskegon, Oceana, Ogemaw, Ontona- 

 gon. Saginaw, Schoolcraft. Wayne and Wex- 

 ford. 



In St. Clair, Cass, and Gratiot resolutions 

 were introduced at the October sessions of 

 the boards of supervisors to submit the propo- 

 sition to a vote of the people, but in each 

 case_ the matter was laid over to the January 

 sessions. 



MUST HAVE GOOD ROADS. 



Uncle Sam has a firm hold upon the question 

 of good roads which are being talked about all 

 over the country. In some localities threats have 

 been made and eventually carried out to the ef- 

 fect that rural mail service would be discon- 

 tinued if the roads traveled over were not put in 

 better condition. 



CROSS-TIES PURCHASED IN 1909. 



The total number of wooden cross-ties pur- 

 chased by the steam and electric railroads of the 

 United States in 1909 was 123,751,000. This 

 represents an increase of 11,285,000 ties, or 10 

 per cent., over the number purchased in 1908, 

 but a decrease of 29,952,000, or 19.5 per cent, 

 from the number reported for 1907. The year 

 1907 was one of great activity in the railroad 

 world, while in 1908 the railroads felt the effect 

 of the general business depression and curtailed 

 their expenses accordingly. The figures for 

 1909, 1908 and 1907 show, however, that the 

 cross-tie industry is rapidly regaining the pros- 

 perity enjoyed in 1907. 



Of the ties bought for new track in 1909, the 

 steam railroads reported 13,822.000, or about 84 

 per cent., and the electric roads 2,615,000. The 

 ties purchased for new track by steam roads 

 formed 12 per cent. of~alT ties purchased by 

 them, while the corresponding proportion for 

 the electric roads was 31.4 per cent. 



Ten kinds of wood supplied 97.3 per cent, of 

 all tie-s purchased. These are oak, southern 

 pine, Douglas fir, western pine, cedar, chestnut, 

 cypress, tamarack, hemlock, and redwood. The 

 oaks led by a wide margin, being the timber 

 used for 57,132,000 ties, or 46.2 per cent, of the 

 total number purchased, and more than two 

 and one-half times as many ties as were made 

 from the southern pines, which ranked next in 

 importance and which were used in the produc- 

 tion of 21,385,000 ties. More than 63 per cent. 

 of all ties purchased were made from some 

 species of oak or from the southern yellow 

 pines. 



Douglas fir, a species which will probably be 

 drawn upon heavily as the demand for ties 

 crowds the supply was used for 9,067,000 ties. 

 Ranking next in importance were western pine, 

 cedar, and chestnut, each being credited with a 

 total of slightly more than 6,500,000 ties. Cy- 

 press, tamarack, hemlock, and redwood, each 

 supplying more than 2,000.000 ties, complete the 

 list of the ten leading kinds of wood pur- 

 chased. The remaining species, which include 

 white pine, lodgepole pine, gum, spruce, beech, 

 maple, birch, elm, mesquite, locust, ash, walnut, 

 and a number of others furnished but 3,- 

 334,000 ties. 



The two leading timbers were the same as in 

 1908. Oak, with an increase of 9,022,000 ties, 

 contributed a slightly higher proportion of the 

 total number of ties purchased in 1909 than in 

 Southern pine, on the other hand, fur- 

 nished a slightly smaller number of ties than 

 in 1908 and a smaller proportion of the total. 

 Douglas fir, with an increase of 1,079,000 ties, 

 held third rank in 1909, the same as in 1907. 



The increasing use of several of the rela- 

 tively unimportant tie woods, especially gum, 

 spruce, and beech, is noteworthy. The number 

 of gum ties purchased, which in 1907 was only 

 15,000, increased to 262,000 in 1908, and by a 

 further gain of 116,000 ties, reached a total of 

 378,000 ties in 1909. Spruce and beech also 

 showed heavy gains during the past two years. 

 The increasing use of these species which are 

 lacking in decay-resisting qualities is evidence 

 of the growing use of methods of wood preser- 

 vation through chemical treatment. 



Approximately 77 per cent, of all ties pur- 

 chased in 1909 were hewed. Although the pro- 

 portion of hewed ties was lower than in 1908, 

 it was the same as in 1907 and higher than in 

 1906. About 82 per cent, of all ties purchased 

 in 1908 and about 75 per cent, of those pur- 

 chased in 1906 were hewed. In the industry as 

 a whole it is apparent that methods of manu- 

 facture are not undergoing any great general 

 and permanent changes. 



Cross-ties made of oak showed a slight gain 

 in the relative number of sawed ties. In 1908, 

 12.4 per cent, of the oak ties purchased were 

 sawed, while in 1909, 16 per cent were so re- 

 ported. In the case of ties made from southern 

 pine the proportion of hewed ties, although less 

 than in 1908, was greater than in 1907. Doug- 

 las fir is the only important timber from which 

 more ties are sawed than hewed, 78.5 per cent, 

 of the ties reported as made from this timber 

 in 1909 being sawed. The number of ties 



hewed from Douglas fir does not change from 

 year to year proportionate to the use of the 

 species, the fluctuations in the demand for ties 

 made from this wood being confined largely to 

 sawed ties, which show wide variations annu- 

 ally. 



In the case of cedar ties the number of 

 hewed ties shows a steady and heavy decrease 

 since 1907, while the number of sawed ties has 

 increased correspondingly, from 592,000 in 1907 

 to 1,813,000 in 1909. 



The steam railroads of the United States 

 purchased 115,432,000 cross-ties in 1909, or 93.3 

 per cent of the total quantity purchased. Of 

 these, 77.9 per cent were hewed and 22.1 per 

 cent, sawed. The electric railroads purchased 

 8,319,000 ties, or 6.7 per cent, of the total in 

 1909, a gain of 1,894,000 ties over 1908. Of 

 these, 67.5 per cent, were hewed and 32.5 per 

 cent, sawed. 



Next to oak ties the electric roads purchased 

 more ties made of chestnut than of any other 

 species. Almost as many southern pine ties 

 were reported by them ; and ties of cedar, red- 

 wood, and .Douglas fir ranked next in import- 

 ance. Since the steam roads purchased a very 

 high proportion of the total number of ties re- 

 ported, the rank of the woods used by them is 

 the same as that discussed under the total num- 

 ber purchased by both classes of roads. The 

 less durable woods are little used by the electric 

 roads, doubtless because these roads lack the 

 facilities for preservative treatment which a 

 number of the large steam railroads now pos- 

 sess. 



The total cost of all cross-ties purchased in 

 1909 was $60,320,700, an amount which exceeds 

 the figures for 1908 by more than $4,000,000. 



In 1909 the steam roads and electric roads 

 each paid the same average price for hewed 

 ties. Sawed ties were purchased for the same 

 average price (49 cents) as hewed ties by the 

 steam roads, but the electric roads paid 4 cents 

 more for sawed ties. It is an interesting fact 

 that although the average tie used by the elec- 

 tric roads is smaller than that used by the steam 

 roads, the price paid for it is generally greater. 

 This is due not only to the disadvantages inci- 

 dent to contracts for smaller quantities of ma- 

 terial, but also to the fact that the electric roads 

 are more likely to purchase ties at points where 

 the price includes railroad transportation 

 charges. 



The highest average price reported by the 

 steam railroads was 64 cents for sawed red- 

 wood ties and the lowest 33 cents for hewed 

 hemlock. The electric roads paid as high as 82 

 cents for hewed western pine ties, these being 

 practically all treated, while the lowest average 

 price paid by them was 31 cents for hewed 

 hemlock. From Annual Federal Report. 



RECEIVER FOR PETERS SALT AND 

 LUMBER COMPANY. 



Judge Denison of the United States court 

 has appointed the Michigan Trust Company 

 of Grand Rapids received for the R. G. Peters 

 Salt and Lumber Company of Manistee and 

 for R. G. Peters. The liabilities approximate 

 $2.000.000 and the assets are believed to be 

 $500,000 in excess of these, but they are 

 widely scattered. The receiver was- appointed 

 for the conservation of the Peters interests 

 and to protect creditors. 



Mr. Peters and the Peters Salt and Lumber 

 Company failed in 1890 and the Michigan 

 Trust Company was appointed receiver then 

 also. All debts aggregating about $3,000,000 

 were paid in full and assets aggregating 

 $1.500,000 were turned over to Mr. Peters. 

 The receivership was dissolved in 1896. Now 

 comes the second crash. 



The receivership is now created at the in- 

 stance of Mrs. Emma Burton of Palestine. 

 Texas, a sister of Mr. Peters, who has filed 

 a bill in chancery in the United States court 

 asking that this action be taken. She is a 

 creditor of the R. G. Peters Salt and Lumber 

 Company to the amount of $16,163, holding 

 the company's notes endorsed by Mr. Peters. 

 The action is in chancery and not in bank- 

 ruptcy. 



