The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-06-20
DECAY IN WOOD PREVENTED.

which under ordinary circumstance!
will last for perhaps two years, will
if given preservative treatment cost
ing about 10 cents. last eighteen
years. The service of other timbers,
such as railroad ties, telephone poles,
and mine props, can be doubled and
often trebled by Inexpensive preser-
vative treatment. Today, when the
cost of wood is big item to every
farmer, every stockman, every rail-
road manager-to everyone, in fact,
who must use timber where it is likely
to decay-this is fact which should
be carefully considered.
1t is easy to see that if the length
of time timbers can be used is doubled,
only half as much timber will be re-
quired as before and only one half as
much money will need to be spent in
the purchase of timber. Moreover,
many woods which were for a long
time considered almost worthless can
be treated and made to last as long as
the scarcer and more expensive kinds.
Of the actual saving in dollars and
cents through preservative treatment,
fence post such as was mentioned
at the beginning might serve as one
example. The post is of loblolly pine,
and costs, untreated, about 8 cents,
or, including the cost Of setting, Ia
cents. 1t lasts about two years. Com
pounding interest at S per cent, the
annual charge of such post is 7.53
cents; that is, it costs 7.53 cents
year to keep the post in service. Pre-
servative treatment costing 10 cents
will increase its length of life to about
eighteen years. In this case the total
cost Of the post, set, is 24 cents, which
compounded at S per cent, gives an
annual charge of 2.o4 cents. Thus
the saving due to treatment is $40
cents a year. Assuming that there
are 200 posts per mile, there is a saw
ing each year for every mile of fence
of sum equivalent to the interest on
$4,000.
In the same way preservative treat
ment will increase the length of life
of loblolly pine railroad tie from FIVE
years to twelve years and will reduce
the annual charge of II.52 cents to
o.48 cents, which amounts to a saw
ing of $58.75 per mile.
It is estimated that 10000 acres
are required each year to grow tim
Der for the anthracite coal mines
alone. The average life of an un-
treated mine prop is not more than
three years. BY proper preservative
treatment it can be prolonged by
many times this figure. Telephone
and telegraph poles, which in ten or
twelve years, or even less, decay so
badly at the ground line that they
have to be removed, can, by simple
treatment of their butts, be made to
last twenty or twenty-five years. Sap
rlr:vs-1~<-~-ssts:e1s---.--- s---~s.-ys-
treated and made to outlast even
painted shingles of the most decay
resistant woods. Thousands of dol
lars are lost every year by the So
called "bluing" of freshly sawed sap
wood lumber. This can be prevent
ed by, proper treatment, and at cost
so small as to put it within the reach
of the smallest operator.
In the South, the cheap and abun-
dant loblolly pine, one of the easiest
of all woods to treat, can by proper
preparation be made to take the place
of the high grade longleaf pine for
many purposes. Black and tupelo
gums and other little-used woods'have
a new and increasing importance be-
cause of the possibility of preserving
them from decay at small cost. In
the Northeastern and Lake states are
tamarack, hemlock, beech, birch and
maple, and the red and black oaks, all
of which by proper treatment may
help to replace the fast-diminishing
white oak and cedar. In the states
of the Mississippi Valley the pressing
fence-post problem may be greatly re-
lieved by treating such species as
cottonwood, willow and blackberry.
Circular I3o of the Forest Service,
"a Primer of Wood Preservation, !"
tells in simple terms what decay is
and how it can be retarded, describes
brily certain preservatives and pro-
cesses, gives examples of the saving
in dollars and cents, and tells what
wood preservation can do in the fu-
ture. The circular can be had free
upon application to the Forester,
Forest Service. Washington, D. c.