The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-09

chesnut timber is more widely scattered and is not as plentiful where it does oc- cur Tn the south and east pine jump CT and cypress have been used some- what they are relatively short lived un- less treated with some preservative.
 The vitality of pole is affected by two things-the gradual disintegration from which everything in this world suffers, and the attacks of insects and of vegetable growths. The latter are the main cause of it's more or less speedy decay. Tn some parts of the south, particularly, ants destroy poles very rapidly eating them through till they would crumble and break if they were not replaced. Everywhere, vege- table growths such as the familiar punk, toadstools, frogstools and mush- rooms, are likely to fix upon poles, and drawing from the woods its albumen starch sugar and oils for their food, leave only rotten fiber which has no strength. To exist the fungi must have air, or oxygen, water and a certain amount of heat, in addition to their food supply; however and it is in the direction of these necessities of life that modern science is attacking them.
 Telephone poles nearly always de- cay at or just below the ground line. The upper portion of the poles, perma- nently in the air, rapidly drying after rain is practically always dry and is rarely found decayed. The butt of the pole, deeply buried in the ground, is in a permanently condition, but oxygen being excluded it is seldom badly affected, Close to the ground line, the soil retains the moisture and keeps the wood constantly damp where 1t is ex- posed to the air and to the heat of the sun-which is just what its little vegetable enemies like Alternate dampness and dryness, or the combined action of dampness and heat, make wood more vulnerable to the attack of both insects and plants but if the al- bumen in the wood can be rendered un- fit for food the wood tissues offer prac- tically no support to fungi Timber preservation amounts then to poison ing the food supply of the destructive agencies and making their living quarters generally uncomfortable,
 Preservation of timber is attempted in three ways-by seasoning, either natural or artificial; by outward me- chanicaI means, such as charring in fire, or the application of antiseptics on the surface of the stick; and by im- pregnating the wood with antiseptics. Of these the last is by far the most im- portant. The most perfect method whihcis also the most eXpensive-is the injection of dead oil of coal tar into the whole fiber of the pole.
 The treating of poles with dead oil of coal tar is an intereting process. The actual treating is done in big iron cylinders, built like the shells of huge steam boilers, six or seven feet in diameter ad from no to 125 feet in length. The cylinders have movable endshung on hinges, ah if they were big round doors-which indeed is exactly what they are Inside are tracks for the little tramcars on which the poles are moved about, and there are several rows of steam pipes-for heating. Near by are big tanks holding several hund- dred thousand gallons of the preserv- tive oil. and smaller measuring tanks,
 After the poles have been placed in a cylinder the ends are closed and