The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-01-29
MILLIONS OF RAILROAD TIES.
How the Forests Are Sacrificed to Ful

How the Forests Are Sacrificed to Fur
nish Them-ProPosed Substitutes.
"The railroads of this country" said a
railway official well posted on the subject
'pay s6, ,000, 600 year for the cross ties. The
timber used is oak, chestnut and hemlock in
the east, and oak. cherry, locust maple and
ash in the south and west. The best ties are
made of white oak. More than 225 600 acres
of forest are needed to supply these ties
every year, and consequently the necessities
of railroads in this one respect alone form
considerable item i'll the destruction of our
forests The country along the line of our
road alone annually supplies us with hum
dreds of thousands of oak and chestnut ties,
and thus far we have not been compelled to
go outside of our own district for our sup
plies, One county in Pennsylvania fur
tsishss large p-oportion of our ties, and
has for many years. That is Pike county,
and every station on our line in that county
is n supply depot for railroad ties.
u have often wondered where they all
come from, for the contractors who operate
in that county after thirty years of chop
ping and hewing in her forests never hesi-
tate to contract for the delivery of as many
ties as we may call for, and they are brought
Ah IL dS All tS ltlUccI 1I1lCo tuC 1hAA-
road. Besides the large number that we
annually receive from the county the Della
ware & Lackawanna road, on the other side
Of the county, depends on the same region
for large share of its ties For more than
twenty-five years, also, up to the time we
adopted coal as fuel, Pike county furn-
ished the Erie'with hpsldreds of thousands of
cords of wood every ayear-oak, chestnut,
maple, hickory, ands pine Besides these
drafts on her timberlaEd the county's best
young chestnut trees .ve been cut for more
than thirty five years 9 help in renewing our
telegraph poles q
Railroad ties need Gssnewing every three
years. In building K,w road the estimate
is Zoo ties for each ra1Se. 1t is same to say
that it will require 3OaaSies per mile per year
to keep road in repaA From II, ,OO0, 600 to
Is, ,000, 600 new ties arr Aequired by the rail-
roads of the United sSAes every year. In
building the great stern railroads the
contractors in many 4Ss purchase outright
the timber along the lfH5es or as near to it
rs possible. In that cA they pay from $40
to $25 an acre for the Sand. If they con-
tract simply for the tiei@Shey pay from 10 to
12 cents apiece for the T&to the owner of the
land for all the ties talM out. The average
price paid to the contTa aS2or is 35 cents apiece,
although we have paid Us much as SO cents
for the best oak ties. Eewn ties are better,
in our estimation, than sawed ones, and we
use no Others Some companies think as
well of sawed ties as of the hewn ones The
theory of our people is that the hewn tie lasts
much longer than the others.
at is only within the past few years that
hemlock has been used to any extent in
making railroad ties, but we find that it can
used to advantage in many instances on
Sidings and sections of track where the
traffic does not require constant repairs.
This road pays to the tie contractors along
the line about $400, 600 year. Stone iron,
paper, and even glass have been used in
making railroad ties, with the hope that
they could be practically adopted as a mat
ter of economy in that department of the ex-
pense of railroads, but none of them have
yet been utilized with satisfactory results
The annual clearing off Of 250,000 acres Of
timber to supply railroads with ties alone is
something that should direct the attention Of
those who are interested in the important
question of protection to forests to the find
ing of some practical substitute for wooden
ties Fame and fortune await the inventor
who will discover such substitute. Port
Jervis Cor New York Times.