The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1908-03-12
Decay in Wood Prevented.


will last for perhaps two years, will
If Civ en- 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.
vatiye treatment. To-day, 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 IL is likely
to decay-thls 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 we're for a long
time consider almost worthless can
be tr eated and made to last as long
as the scaTcer and more expensive
kinds.
Of the actual saving in dollars and
cents through preservative treat.
ment, fence post such as was men
toned at the beginning might serve
as an example. The post is of lob
lollv pine, and costs, untreated, about
cents, or, including the cost of set
ting, Ia cents. 1t lasts about two
years. Compromising interest at s
per cent, the annual charge of such
post Is I 53 cents that is, 1t costs 1853
cents year to keep the post in SER
vice. Preservative treatment costing
10. cents will increase it's length of
life to about eighteen years. In this
case the total cost of the post, set, is
"a cents, which compounded at s per
cents, gives an annual charge of 2O4
cents. Thus the saving due to treat.
ment Is 40 cents a year. Assuming
that there are 200 posts per mile,
there Is saving each year for every
mile of fence of sum equivalent to
the interest on 8219 90.
In the same way preservative treat
ment will increase the length of life
of loblollv pine railroad tie from
ave to twelve years and will reduce
the annual charge from IL 81 cents to
g. 4S cents, which amounts to a saving
of s5S.75 per mile
1t Is estimated that 10000 acres
are required each year u grow timber
for the anthracite coal mines alone.
The average life of an untreated
mine prap is not more than three
years. BY proper preservative treat
ment 1t can be prolonged by manv
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 a simple
treatment of their butts, be made to
last twenty or twenty-five years. Sap
shingles, which are almost valuless
In their natural state, can easily be
treated and made to outlast even
painted shingles of the most decay.
resistant woods. Thousands of dollars
are lost every year by the socalled
"bluing" of freshly sawed sapwood
lumber. This can be prevented by
proper treatment, and at a cost SO
small as to put 1t 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 fol
many purposes. Black and tupelC
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. Ir
the Northeastern and Lake State.
are tamarack, hemlock, beech birch
and maple, and the red and black
OAKS, all of which by proper treat
ment may help to replace the fast
dimini shing white oak and cedar. Ir
the States of the Mississippi VALLEY
the pressing fence post problem may
be greatly relieved by treating sucE
species as cottonwood, willow ant
blackberry.
Circular 1873 of the Forest Service
"a Primer of Wood Preservation, ;
tells in simple terms what decay II
and how 1t can be retarded, describel
briefly certain preservatives anC
processes, gives ex amples of the saw
ing in dollars and cents, and tell
VIII I wood preservation can do in tn,
future. The rcular can be bad fret
upon applica tion to the Forester