OFFICE OF PUBLIC ROAD INQUIRIES. 239 



Mr. Abbott wrote a paper on " Mountain roads" for the last Year- 

 book of this Department, which has since been republished in pamphlet 

 form for general distribution. It was a technical article, giving 

 detailed information regarding practice in mountain-road construction. 

 The paper has been quite extensively republished in the press of differ- 

 ent parts of the United States. 



PRACTICAL ROAD WORK. 



Requests for the practical cooperation and assistance of this Office 

 in actual road building and in addressing meetings have been more 

 numerous this year than ever before. Owing to our limited means, 

 however, but few of these requests could be complied with. In this 

 work the Office has endeavored to assist those sections of the country 

 which needed help most, and to work in those States and communities 

 where little or nothing had yet been done by us. The Office has also 

 cooperated to the fullest extent possible in the construction of various 

 kinds of roads and in the dissemination of information at road con- 

 ventions and other meetings in the following States: Michigan, Ala- 

 bama, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, Missis- 

 sippi, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Minne- 

 sota, Iowa, Ohio, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, 

 Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, 

 and California. Object-lesson roads have been built under the direc- 

 tion of the Office in the first nine of these States, while the results of 

 our investigations and practical assistance in road meetings have been 

 extended to all the others. From five to twenty-five addresses were 

 delivered by representatives of the Office in each of these States. 

 Brief reports of the most important work done in some of the States 

 are given : 



MICHIGAN. 



A review of the work done during the early part of the fiscal year 

 1901 at Port Huron was given in my last report. Experts from this 

 Office also assisted in building sample roads during road conventions 

 at Saginaw and Traverse City. A brief statement of the work done 

 at Traverse City will serve to illustrate the methods pursued by the 

 agents of this Office at both these places. It may be given in the 

 words of the special agent in charge, whose letter to the Office is as 

 follows : 



Menomonie, Wis. , October 30, 1900. 



Dear Sir: As soon as possible after receipt of your request, I started for Trav- 

 erse City, Mich. On arrival I found that the machinery for the sample stone 

 road had not been assembled. By energetic work everything was in readiness by 

 Tuesday noon, October 9. The work of crushing and placing the stone was pushed, 

 so that on the first day of the convention there was a section of macadam founda- 

 tion laid and rolled in readiness to receive the final surfacing of stone, a portion of 

 which was spread and rolled during the convention. 



The convention proper met in business session Thursday morning, October 11, 

 when the address of welcome was made by Mayor A. V. Fredericks, to which I 

 responded in your behalf. The balance of the session was devoted to reports and 

 speeches from delegates from the thirteen counties represented. 



In the afternoon the machinery, donated for the work by the Port Huron Engine 

 and Thresher Company, was paraded through the streets of the city to the scene 

 of the operations, the traction engine hauling a train of 10 heavy wagons loaded 

 with delegates and other interested people. Addresses were made on the ground 

 by Hon. Frank Hamilton, Thomas T. Bates, and myself, my address being on the 

 lines of practical road construction, forcibly illustrated by the work in progress. 

 A largely attended meeting held in the evening in the opera house was addressed 

 by Hon. A. E. Palmer, of Kalkaska, and Special Agent H. S. Earle, of Detroit. 



