Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-01-02
MILLIONS OF RAILROAD TIES.
How the Forests Are Sacrificed to Furnish
Them.

Them.
"The railroads of this country" said a
railway official well posted on the subject
to Port Jervis correspondent of the
New York Times, "pay $6,0OO,O00 q year
tor 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 a considerable item
in the destruction of our forests. The
country along the line of our road alone
annually supplies US with hundreds of
thousands of oak and chestnut ties, and
thus far We have not been compelled to
60 outside of our own district for our sup
plies. One county in Pennsylvania fur
nishes large proportion of our ties, and
has for many years. That is Pike county,
and every station on our line in that
county is supply depot for railroad ties.
1 lave often wondered where they all
come from, for the contractors who
operate in that county after thir-
ty years of chopping and hewing in her
forests never hesitate to contract for the
delivery of as many ties as We may call
for, and they are brought in from as far as
fifteen miles from the railroad. Besides
the large number that We annually re-
ceive from the county the Delaware and
Lackawanna road, on the other side of
the county, depends on the same region
for large share of its ties. For more
hov fxro ~ 70 M
time We adopted coal IS fuel, Pike coun-
ty furnished the Erie with hundreds of
thousands of cords of wood every year
oak, chestnut, maple, hickory, and pine.
Besides these drafts on her timber land,
the county's best young chestnut trees
have been cut for more than thirty-fve
years to help in renewing our telegraph
poles.
RAILROAD ties need renewing every
three years. In building q new road
the estimate is 900 ties for each mile.
1t is safe to say that it will require 900
ties per mile per year to keep road in
repair. From 100000 to $4,000 900
new ties are required by the railroads of
the United States every year. In build.
ing the great western railroads the con-
tractors in many cases purchase outright
the timber along the routes, or as near to
it as possible. In that case they pay
from $40 to $25 an acre for the land. Ii
they contract simple for the ties they
pay from 10 to IL cents apiece for them
to the owner of the land for all the ties
taken out. The average price paid to the
tie contractor is 35 cents apiece although
we have paid as much as so cents for
the best oak ties. Hewn ties are better,
in our estimation, than sawed ones, and
we use no others. Some companies think
as we'll of sawed ties as of the hewn ones.
The theory of our people is that the
hewn tie lasts much longer than the
others. It 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 be 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 $780,
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 matter of econo-
my in that department Of the expense
of railroads, but none of them have yet
been utilized with satisfactory results.
The annual clearing off of quarter of e
million acres of timber to supply rail-
roads 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 finding OF
some practical substitute for wooden ties.
Fame ard fortune await the inventor
who will discover such substitute"