The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-17
Railroad Forest ReserUes
By Frederic J. Haskin.
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 Next to the National Government. the biroest planters and protectors oL a Der lands are the railroaos, anS the Pennsylvania. in the E ,,a- the Santa Fe in the west tn 1,st~a rio,,s statlsticians set to work to make sstIrostes m inc nations timber sup nIv peoule were more or less ineel
 ested' But when 1t was announces that with the enormous demaho "a r, . t,vfnc ctorfes and other industries anu tha nresent ruinous methods or cutllns trees the good timber supply MouLu s last only a generation more 2" nus, a shudder of apprehension went a"lo"s those who heard. a was amone tha first to realize the need or immediate measures for relief An 1909 it began planting locust trees on it's untimbered lands, and q year ago established a department or Iores try with a corps of men, graduates oI university schools of forestry; III charge Twenty years ago the sosu began planting trees. setting out apouI 200, ,000 catalpas in Indiana put .ne now being afforested are chiefly farms lying contiguous to the railways right of-way. These farms have been pur- chased outright to avoid the expense of overhead and undergrade crossings or damage by reason of steam or drain" are interference. As farms. these would bring in little. the carless farm. ing of tenants in many cases would run the place down. So the lands we're wisely set aside as the first step in a big corporation's scheme for helping solve it's own and the nations timber problem. The plantations owned by the railroad east of Pittsburg and Erie lie chiefly in Pennsylvania. There are forty-flve in all and they range fin size from twenty to 200 acres. The average cost of afforesting has been a little less than $2o per 1000 trees.
 The first paintings were of black locust. and in the first five years of the railways work as q promoter or forest conservation, 1,679,32Os trees were planted However, the corpora ton had reckoned with out the locust borer, and when that pest appeared, 1t was decided to use other trees that not only would be less susceptible to insect attack, but would also have a more rapid growth and oner a more valuable article in the roads indus trial work. It was decided to plant such trees as red oak, pin oak, chest nut, Scotch pine, red pine and European Iarch, placing each species on the soil to which 1t was best adapted.
 To carry out the plans nursery was established about year ago at Nor risville, Pa., just over the river from Trenton. N. J., thirteen acres of a seventy-five acre farm being set aside for the purpose. Here were planted 230 bushels of red oak and two bushels of pin oak acorns, ten bushels of chest nuts, five bushels of walnuts and fif- teen pounds of hickory nuts. From these came over a million and a half seedlings. In another part of the grounds 225,00O small conifers, some of American, some of foreign, stock were set out ready to transplant. These are ready now for transplanting, and many will be used to hide the unat- tractive signs that outline the right-of- way into many big cities. This Nor risvilIe nursery alone Is expected to furnish a million trees a year for re- foresting purposes.
 The trees now being set out are placed six feet apart to insure. as far as possible, non branching trunks, and to allow for the formation of a deep humus about the roots, so storing rain fall and waterflow and preventing floods or the waste of soil by erosion. As these grow, the unlikely ones will be cut out, and as the others mature in the thirty or forty years required for their perfect growth, a system of careful and conservative cutting and replanting will provide for a perpet- ual forest. In twenty or twenty five years some of the trees now being planted will be available for fence posts, and forty years from now others will be ready to be made into ties.
 The Pennsylvania east of Pittsburg requires at present 10000 cross ties a year, 5000 900 for annual repairs and 1,000,0 900 for new construction. So 1t will be seen that the present planting will in forty years from now, furnish only a small part of the needed supply, even if there were no increase in track age, and the company yearly planting could furnish the million trees needed for ties alone. Some idea of the tim Der a road can use every year may be gleaned from the fact that from 17 ,O00,- 900 to 25,O00,00 board feet of lumber are kept on hand in the lumber yards at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylva- mia. and millions more in smaller shops.
 On the Santa Fe's big ranch north of San Diego, Calf. extensive experI- ments have been made with eucalyptus trees. Ten thousand acres have been planted by the railroad at various points, for the production of ties, For six months an expert in the employ of the road journeyed in Hawaii. Japan. the RnlllpplnSS anu AuSlEdIid, Sluuy- ing woods that were suited to the needs of the railway, eventually choosing the eucalyptus. If the plans work out properly this forest is expected in eigh- teen years to furnish something like 7.0Oo, 900 ties a year, though the Santa Fe now uses only 3.000,o00.
 The Big Four, the Boston and Maine, the Boston and Albany, the Illinois Gen. tral, the Norfolk and Western. and the Michigan Central have made extensive plantings of catalpa. the Louisville end Nashville afforested about HOO acres with catalpa to protect the watershed above Boston that afforded the city water supply. These have been more successful than the earlier attempts back in the seventies and eighties when the old Kansas City. Fort Scott and Memphis made a big planting of Caral- pa, ailanthus, osage orange, white ash considerable area. expecting to raise wood for it's own use; the Cleveland Clins Company. of Michigan, Is refor- esting cut-over land with red and white pine; the Willamette Paper and Pulp Company has planted HOO acres of cot tonwood in Oregon. while the Interna- rionaI Harvester Company. the New York and Pennsylvania Paper and Pulp Company the International Paper Com. pany, the American Leather Company and 4bA DhuoaAfnhsa and RaoNfncr Cnal