The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-03-22
RAILROADS
BOUGHT MANY TIES.

lOwstone Reserve by the Burlington.
From several aspects striking in
terest attaches to the recent sale by
the government of about $4,000, 900 feet
G timber on the Montana division of
the Yellowstone forest reserve to a
contracting company, which will con-
vert most of the timber into railroad
ties
This is one of the largest sales ever
made OF government timber; the price
is advantageous, and a large percent
age OF the cut will be of species
which few years ago was without
market value, namely, log pole pine.
Further it may be said with assur-
ance that had not the preservative
treatment of the ties been shown to be
10th practical and economical, such
sale could not now have been made,
for GO per cent of the cut, of approx
mately 100000 ties, is to be treated
with preservatives by process which
experiment and trial have placed on
sound business basis.
The purchasers of the timber have
contracted to supply the Chicago, Bur-
lington & Quincy and the Northern
Pacific railway companies with ties
for a period covering three years.
The timber for which they applied to
the government consists of log pole
pine, red fir, and spruce. A large pro-
portion of the stand is log pole pine,
which grows very densely. Conse-
quently after all the specified timber
has been removed, plentiful stand
of young trees will be left, which In
few years will again form a forest
of mercantile dimensions.
The government will receive
stumpage price of $3.50 a thousand
feet for the red fir and $500 a thou
sand feet for the spruce and pine.
The story of entrance of lodgepole
pine into the timber market is an in
teresting. chapter into the history of
the use OF forest products. Five years
ago this tree was classed among the
nearly worthless, inferior timbers
growing in the northwestern states.
1t had never come into extensive use.
Its liability to attack by fungus and
to check in drying its softness and
tghtness, and large percentage of
sapwood In its structure were dis
advantages which seemed to handicap
it permanently. Yet the possibility
and the need of finding substitutes for
scarcer woods had already led to the
closer study of a number of unexploit-
ed species, and devices were being
sought by which artificial treatment
might be made to take the place of
natural adaptability to a specific SER
vice.
Among these devices were improve
ments in seasoning methods and the
use OF preservatives. 1t was found that
preservative treatment, which greatly
preserved the life of certain timbers,
depends largely for its success upon
the penetrability of the wood, which
permits the preservative to enter the
wood substance easily The loblolly
Pine was seen. to be exceedingly we'll
adapted for preservative treatment and
also lodgepole pine, whose softness is
combined with high degree of per-
meability. In 1902 the seasoning and
preserving of lodgepole pine was thor
oughly taken up by the forest service,
in cooperation with the Chicago, Bur-
Nngton & Quincy railroad and with
the present purchasers of reserve tim
Der In Montana. The results estab-
lished its serviceabiHty and thus
opened new field for the supply of
ties, upon which the. railroads are
drawing SO heavily. -