The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-11
MAKES WOOD
 LAST LONGER
SEASONING AND PREsERvINo, A NEW METHOD OF FOREST
 ECONOMY.
Cheap Timbers, Properly Treated, May Take Place of High-orade Woods-The Best Woods to be
 Put to the Best Purposes.
Washington Special.

The rapid disappearance of the best American timbers has developed a new method of economy, which Is. in brief, that inferior timbers shall be pressed into service and by proper seasoning and pre- serving be made to take the place of those more valuable,
 The idea is the inevitable outcome of wasteful cutting. long continued, which has culled the forests of their best trees, so that industries requiring high grade woods at low cost are less and less able to obtain supplies at a price which they can afford to pay. White oak, for exam pie. was for many years practically the only wood used for railroad ties So abundant and cheap was this timber that 1t never occurred to the railroads it would not always continue to be abun- dant and cheap. Ties were laid without seasoning two days after they had been hewn. of were left to lie and decay in ditches of water before they were put in the track. But conditions have changed; white oak for ties. fence posts. piles and other common purposes cannot be used to the same extent as formerly, and It's place has largely been taken by inferior timbers.
 It is not enough that forestry on large scale replace the present wasteful methods of cutting. since forestry can not make up immediately for what has been lost, It Is essential, while admin istering wisely to forests which still re- main. that the timbers cut be now put to their highest use; that a good timber be put only to a high-grade purpose. and that poor timber be substituted for a good timber whenever 1t will do the work required.
 of Forestry, having in mind the increas- ing demand for good timbers and the diminishing forest resources, has persist ently urged and encouraged. By every available means 1t has attempted to find uses for woods not now regarded as mer- chantable and to substitute them for woods rarer but better known. The rail roads especially. enormous consumers of wood. have been impressed with the necessity for such a substitution. Lodge pole pine in the Northwest has been laid as ties during the past year instead of bull pine Shortleaf and loblolly ties will probably soon replace those of iong- leaf in Mississippi. Louisiana and Texas. Hemlock and tamarack may take the place of oak and pine in other parts of the country; and when oak is used at all for ties it will be the inferior species instead of the valuable white oak.
 In the first of a series of bulletins on problems in timber preservation just is- sued by the Bureau of Forestry as Bull letin A. Seasoning of Timber by Her mann von Schrenk. the seasoning which precedes the preservation treatment is dealt with. Dr. Won Schrenks reason ing experiments. made largely in cooper ation with railroad companies, although still in the preliminary stages, have al- ready developed facts of very consider able importance.
 The main advantages of seasoning tim- Der are that reasoned timber lasts longer, aIr ha for tv1 hop ia sary to the life of decay producing fungi; that it greatly increases the effectiveness of the preservative treatment; and that by reducing the weight of timber 1t causes corresponding saving in freight. In Euroupe all railroad ties, bridge ma terials. telegraph poles, fence posts, etc., are commonly seasoned, the time of seas soning varying from several months to two years. In this country the tremen- dous development of the industries that require building lumber has pressed the lumber manufacturer so hard that he is forced to send out a poor product, which the consumer is willing to take in that condition rather than wait for thorough ly seasoned material. Properly seasoned material commands a high price and sometimes cannot be obtained at ali. One of the interesting facts brought out by Dr. Won Schrenk's study is that, as rule, high grade timbers like white oak and longleat pine, oeing very much denser than timbers of low grade, are not so readily penetrated as the latter by the preservative fluid: and that. 1t is. therefore. much more economical to treat low grade. porous wood like beech. which ordinarily lasts only four or five years, than a high grade timber Beech so treated has outlasted oak several times For a similar reason, 'it would be a great waste" says Dr. Won Schrenk. ito attempt the treatment of white oak or longleaf pine, when better results will be obtained by using loblolly pine or red oak"
 pr. von Schrenks bulletin contains detailed accounts of different methods ot seasoning, both open-air seasoning and by kiln drying; the results of seasoning tests in different parts of the country and with different timbers; tests with tel ephone poles etc. The bulletin will be of special interest to railroad men who have followed the experiments with close at tention.