New-York tribune., 1903-07-12
RAILWAY FORESTRY.
Roads May Gropc Their Ozcn Trees
for T'ies-.Some Experiments.
rFRoM THE TRIBUNE BUREAU.l

Washington. July 1.-THE Bureau of Forestry has
continued this year far larger scale the expert
nents in timber seasoning and preservation for the
railroads which it began last year under DR.. Her
man Won Schrenk This summer the work will be
carried on IN many States and will be broadened
in scope and made even more thorough than before
This work will be done for the New-York Central,
the Erie the Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsyl-
vania railroads in the East, and for the Illinois
Central the Santa Fe. the st. Louis and San Fran
cisco. the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the North
Pacific, and the Burlington IN the South and
West.
The scarcity of valuable timber is felt by class
of consumers more keenly than by the railroads,
which every year 100000 ties merely TO renew
those worn out and decayed. The price OF timber
has risen in some instances to figure which makes
its prohibtive; in other cases the supply Is so
nearly exhausted that the roads have been COM
PEELED to look about for new timber
The Bureau OF Forestry has been called on to
assist in solving the difficulty and has come for
ward with the practical and simple suggestion that
the railroads., instead of continuing TO use ex-
pensive high grade timber for such low grade
purpose that of railroad ties, shall use the
cheaper woods For example to the complaint OF
the New York Central that it finds it more and
more difficult to longleaf pine ties from
Georgia at the price it afford to pay, the bureau
suggests that the road the beech. maple and
birch OF the Adirondacks The complaint that the
timbers rot very quickly when laid in the ground
is answered by the suggestion that they should be
seasoned and preserved, just as beech is seasoned
and preserved in France. The Great Eastern Rail-
road OF France has succeeded in making beech ties
last thirty-hve years by impregnating them with
oils The unseasoned longleaf pine ties used by
the New-York Central last only five years. and the
beech. If laid green without seasoning or preserV-
ing would in many cases last no more than three
years. The substance of the proposal which the
bureau has made to the railroads. and which the
railroads have thought well of to adopt, is
that experiments be made to determine whether
cheaper timbers may be treated with preservatiyes
al OF IN q
time that 1t VIII pay to substitute them for the
The railroads have thought so well of these ideas
tnat they win not only carry on under the bureau
and preserving, but have engaged the bureaus help
IN learning where cheap timbers Tor ties may be
cded that II they be convinced that it will pay
win acquire large areas of timber lands on which
they Will grow their own trees. cut their own ties.
and thus be assured of steady supply. This means
that OF the great railroads of the country are
@ f hd Tay o 5p ETea sny SR
The present method Of purchasing railroad ties ties
more hazardous to rely what may be obtained
the market, for the reason that the market is
becoming more and more unwilling to let its tim
bers go railroad ties when as sawed lumber they
sTe to 9FS haul theT ties as far hundred
miles It is absolutely necessary & that supplies be
as to how much can be obtained. A railroad that
needs half million ties on short notice must have
those ties at any price and is often compelled to
pay far more than they are worth. ,.I The great @
| and practising forestry would be that IT would
| count en- every year and how much they would
| cost.
An expert of the bureau is now in the Adiron,
| dacks to determine how much available hardwood
! land there IS along the New-York Centrals
tracks Slmilpr work Will be done for the Erie and
| the Pennsylva i. A party Of foresters is on the
| $1,000 acre tract OF the Baltimore and Ohio road
| near Camden-on- -Gauley w. Va. to determine how
much tie timber Is the tract and how many
trees It will produce every under conservative
| management.
Work Of a nature similar to the railroad expert
ments is being carried on for the American Tee-
wear 5O 900 telephone poles and 100000 feet OF tim
ber in crossarms. Seasoning experiments are being
| conducted chestnut telephone poles near Harris
burg Penn, and on cedar poles near Whining
! ton y. c.
| Important and valuable this work IS to the
railroad and telegraph companies 1t IS Of far great
er Importance and value to the country at large
The use OF cheaper timbers for railroad ties Is IN
! several ways a economic saving II relieves the
hieh grade timbeEs Of a part of the heavy demand
/ that IS being made upon them, opens market 70!
tinbers for which there is now little sale, and
affords splendid opportunities for conservative man
| agement Of timber lands.