Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-04-09
WILL ERECT
SMALL PLANTS
TIMBERs WILL BE TREATED
WITH REPRESENTATIVES. AS
GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENT
PROVED A SUCCESS
Communication From the Office o
Wood Preservative Forester Says
Treating Timbers Is Practical
BILE With Railroads.

be erected on several of the National
Forests for the treating of timbers
with personalities for the preserva-
ton Of timbers. Until recent years it
was considered too expensive and in
convenient for the treating of timber
for preservation to come into general
use. Consequently the forester at
has taken up the work,
experiment plans where
a close record of the cost of operation
will be kept as well as records OF
their experiments. The timbers treat
ed will be placed along side of I'M
treated timbers of the same grade in
exposed places and notes taken Of the
result. Following is communication
received from the forester at Wash
ington:
Timber thoroughly treated with
proper preservatives will last almost
says a government ex-
pert who is an authority on wood
Engineers have known
for years that this is true" he con-
tinues, "but up to the present time, at
least in America, complicated and ex-
pensive plants have been necessary
for the work and wood preservation
has often been too expensive an oper-
alton to allow treated timber to come
into general use"
Methods of Preservation Change.
Methods in wood preservation have
marked change in the
last few years, however, and the
work which few years ago was linn
tied to few experiments carried on
in scattered parts Of the United States
has grown with such rapidity that
wood preservation has became bust
ness which figures most prominently
in the industrial life of this country.
Each year railroads are treating, an
increasing portion of their cross ties,
miners their mine props, farmers
their fence posts and the man of
many other industries are bringing
preservatives into play to close the
pores and prepare the timber they
use to resist the fungi which cause
decay. The work points the way to
one of the chief means of the con-
servatfon Of the nations forest re-
sources, for as the length of the life
of timber is increased the drain upon
the forests is lessened, and more
wood made available for use.
In nearly all localities in the Rocky
mountain and Pacific states is found
an abundant supply of certain kinds of
timber which have only slight COM
mercial Importance. Englemanu
spruce, lodgepole and other kinds Of
pine, aspen and cottonwood are only
a partial list of the kinds of wood
which are strong enough and abund-
ant enough to win high value for con-
struction purposes, were it not for on,,
single defect which has prevented
their general adoption. When ex.
posed to the soil and weather they
decay so rapidly that they have to be
renewed too often to justify their
use.
Dead timber Of lodgepole pine and
other species also is found in largo
tracts, but is sharply Disseminated
against by all constructing engineers
and contractors. AS a matter Of fact,
the dead timber, provided it is sound,
is just as good as green timber of the
same species; and indeed in some
ways, is even more valuable. For it
is well known that thoroughly sea
soned timber is both stronger and
more durable than the same timber
when green. Timber which was kill
ed by fire or insects, and which is
still in a sound condition, differs from
green timber chiefly in being thor
oughly seasoned, that is to say, it is
stronger, more durable and lighter
And so not only are the freight rates
considerably reduced but better
grade Of timber is secured.
Even in thoroughly seasoned con
dition, lodgepole pine, Englemann
spruce. and the other species mention
ed above, are by no means durable
woods when compared with Douglas
fir, Oregon cedar and the other
kinds Of wood which are used SO ex
tensively in construction work, and
before they can successfully compete
with such timbers, in spite of their
lower price, they must be made to
last longer under unfavorable condi-
tions.
Expensive Plants Not Necessary.
After several years study, the Unit
ed States forest service has proved
that in many cases the complicated
and expensive plants are not neces-
sary for the proper treatment of many
kinds of timber; and that many Of the
timbers which decay most RAPIDLY in
the natural state, are among the cas-
lest and cheapest to treat. Many of
the species mentioned above offer lit
tie resistance to the entrance of the
preservative. The principle of the
method is to immense the thoroughly
seasoned wood in hot bath of the
liquid, leave 1t in for few hours,
and then either plunge it into cold
bath of a preservative, or else run
out the hot liquid from the treating
tank, and fill it UP again with LIQUID
of lower temperature. This requires
only the simplest kind Of machinery,
and the cost Of operation is SO slight
that even cheap timbers like fence
posts and shingles can be treated by
the average farmer Of small means.
Although the forest service, by ex.
tensive experiments in all portions Of
the country, considers that the prac
of the process has been con-
proved, more or less diff
fculty has been encountered in in.
ducing others to adopt the process
on commercial scale. In order to
demonstrate beyond any doubt that