The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1909-11-12

Improvement a s o ia ion
II said James II. Mcdonald,
state highway commissioner
Of Connecticut, at the dinner given
him on the private car Signet by the
members of the b. f. Yoakum good
roads party at New Haven a few days
ago. After a trip of 500 miles by
motor car and 5000 miles by train
through II states the members of the
party were disposed to agree with him.
They were all farmers from the great
southwest-Texas, Oklahoma Louis
lana and Arkansas-and they had just
finished a motor car tour of Maryland,
New Jersey, New York and the New
England states in search of good
roads.
This trip will have tangible and i'm
mediate results. The delegation from
the southwestern states returned home
full of enthusiasm for good roads.
They promised collectively and indi-
vidually to devote their efforts to pro-
noting a cause for which they learned
$10O000,000 already had been expend-
ed in this country. and little states like
New Hampshire and Connecticut were
appropriating millions of dollars. With
in few years the southwestern states
will have good roads.
The first actual work of road in
spection in company with state en-
gineers was in New jersey where the
farmers found roads ranging in cost
from $4,000 to $4,000 a mile They
Travelled over roads made entirely of
gravel and crushed by heavy steam
rollers. They found these roads good
for wagon traffic, but that heavy motor
service wore them out. The average
bitumen road over which they passed
cost from $4,000 to $1,000 a mile, and
furnished very satisfactory service for
both motor and wagon traffic. They
had been laid down in quite a lot of
different ways ranging from % per
cent. asphaltum, 25 per cent. tar and
the rest in gravel and sand up to a
very high percentage of asphalt The
New Jersey engineers recommended
the lower percentage of asphaltum, as
they do not get slippery in hot or
rainy weather.
The next state visited by the in
vestigating committee of southwestern
farmers was New Hampshire. They
were welcomed at Laconia by Gov.
Henry b. Quinby, who told them that
the state had appropriated $4,000, 900
for good roads at the last session of
the legislature; and then proceeded
over parts of the three great trunk
roads which are being built through
the state, in company with A. w.
Dean, state engineer, and his assist
ants.
They found the macadam roads in
Massachusetts. and later in New
York, in which the upper course is
mixed with tar. costing from $4,000 to
$4,000 per mile. This combination
makes an extremely sound road for
both wagon and motor traffic. 1t is
customary to oil the surface of these
roads from time to time in the spring
and fall As cold weather comes on
they cease this oiling. as extreme cold
is apt to produce bad surface under
heavy traffic conditions.
At the conclusion of their first day
in Massachusetts the party rendered O
dinner in Boston to Lieut.. Gov. Froth
ingham. Among those present was
w. f. McClintock, chairman of the
Chelsea board of control. who hac
been for Is years previous connected
with the Massachusetts, state highway
commission, and for IL years of thai
time chairman of that body. He spok,
enthusiastically upon the subject o.
good roads and said in part:
know of several instances wher,
the highways have been so improved
that where IL formerly took two horses
all day to haul one ton II now takes
one horse only half day to haul tw,
tons. You can figure out the percent
age of profit for yourselves. The loac
on improved roads has increased q
10 so and IS per cent, and the horse
power is reduced.
Farmers and state oranges are en-
thusiastic advocates of the good road
movement in this state and recon