Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1917-04-20
CHARLEVOIX COUNTY
IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY


Jordan with goodly number OF inter
ested farmers in all sections OF the
County will do as well in their Com
mercial Associations as Charlevoix the
beautiful has done, we certainly can
hope for great results. think perhaps
one thing we might do that would re-
lieve a great deal of unnecessary talk
and unjust condemnation would be for
all the County officials who handle the
funds OF the County which of course
are the County's funds and not their
own, if they would voluntarily publish
a weekly financial statement of all the
money they have received during the
week and of the names to whom they
have paid money and for what it was
paid for, would think that they would
be glad of the opportunity OF doing
this, thereby placing themselves squares
ly before the people just the same as
our Council does. This would do away
with all suspicion of graft, and il is why
did it when we built the cutoff road
by the Waller farm TO Burgess.
have thought so many times since
my visit to CharlevoiX last week and
asked myself the question-how can
any man drive over the two pieces OF
concrete road in Charlevoix which
have been down six and seven years
each and say it is not the cheapest. One
day while was there ! saw Col. Hamil-
ton with couple OF men breaking a
hole in this concrete road at the top OF
the hill just beyond the Charlevoix
Lumber Co.'S mill, and to see how hard
they had to work with heavy sledges
and chisels to break off pieces as la rge
as an egg up to the size of your hand
A water pipe had frozen during the
winter and the Col. said this is one OF
the hardest jobs he had in getting to
pipes, there was scarcely any show of
wear on the top OF these broken pieces
and altho have said many times that
this pavement would last fifty years, |
now honestly believe that it will last a
hundred years, and the beauty OF it is
that not one cent has been spent in the
up-keep of this piece of road. The
broken pieces showed the stones
broken inside the concrete and that the
concrete was really stronger than the
stone. want the friends of the gravel
roads we are now building TO watch the
Argo Milling Co.'S new truck when il
goes out some day to take five or six
ton load from CharlevoiX TO Boyne City
or +. Jordan, just watch what it does
to the roads, after so doing ask your
they 90 over the road several times a
day, bearing in mind this fact-that
trucks are here to stay and we have
got to build roads for them as well as
for the heavy touring cars and there is
only one kind OF road that will stand
this business, and that is concrete, and
the beauty of it is that the first cost OF
il to our County will be but a trifle
more than the cost of gravel road and
the up-keep of concrete road will be
next to nothing, and of the gravel road
in very few years will be a good deal
more than the original cost.
saw man in Chicago yesterday
who had driven up to our country last
year and he was asked how he had
found the roadside replied very good
indeed when went up in June but
when came back the first of Septem-
Der many of them were in very bad
condition, showing plainly that one
summers wear will put good dirt
road out of commission. would sug-
gest that Charlevoix County secure a
County agent, and believe he will pay
for himself the first year, because |
know that do not know what kind of
a crop is best adapted to any piece of
land or which will grow the most
profitable crop, and | am egotistical to
say that if do not know, having been
virtually brought up on a farm, what
will the average farmer know? A good
County agent can tell when he anylsis
the earth what is the best crop to grow
on it, because he is educated i'm that
line of business and at the present time
there is absolutely nothing more es-
sential or necessary not only for Char
levoiX county but for all the world to
know, and il is our duty to grow all
that we possibly can. Some ground
will grow big crop of onions, but not
of beets, and so on all down the line
The United States now needs all that il
can possibly raise of the best of every
thing out of the ground as well as all
the fruit on the trees, and fish in our
lakes and rivers as well. Our citizens
should be patriotic, no Sinking, no
holding back. Plow both early and
late, plant everything that you can take
care OF, never forgetting what is worth
doing at all is worth doing well, and
ever keeping this i'm view that we will