The daily sentinel., 1909-02-24
RAILROADS DESPERATE IN
SEARCH FOR TIMBERS

That the humble railroad tie
| is "A most important factor in the
material development of the
country is great truth that is
little understood by people out
side of railroad circles. The
putting engine that speeds at
the rate of mile or more II
minute over the country is
slave to the two steel rails that
| insure a smooth and safe road,
and these rails in turn depend
ON the old-fashioned wooden
cross-tie which holds them in
place.
Yankee invention has not yet
found a substitute which has induced
| the railroads to give up wood, al
though experts say that the day will
surely come when the country's for
ests will no longer be called upon to
supply the demand for ties. Up to
the present time it seems that no
other material has been found which
has the resiliency of wood and which
at the same time causes less wear
and tear on the rails, fastenings, and
roadbed.
The country's railroads during the
last two or three years use 100000
600 to 150,000,000 of sawed and
hewn ties a year. The ideal tie tim
ber is white oak, which combines the
qualities of durability, hardness,
strength. and close grain. 1t is not
only excellent for ties, but is widely
used in ship building, for general con-
struction. in cooperage. in the manu-
facture of carriages, for agricultural
implements, interior finish of houses.
and for furniture. On account of this
wide use, the supply has been greatly
reduced and some of the railroads
have been forced to pay almost pro-
hibitive prices for ties, or to substi-
tute other and cheaper woods to re-
place the white oak ties rapidly dis
appearing from their lines.
over 0 per cent of the ties recent
ly purchased by the railroads of the
country are oak, according to latest
statistics of United States forest SER
vice Cross-ties of Southern pine
formed somewhat less than 20 per
cent. Douglas fir ties ranked third,
with approximately 10 per cent of
of these two timbers will increase as
the supply of oak dwindles. This is
also true of cedar chestnut, cypress,
Western pine. tamarack, hemlock.
and other trees which are coming into
the market as tie timbers.
Cedar, which is very durable, has
been extensively used to take the
place of white oak for ties. but it is
so soft that it is readily cut by the
rails This necessitates the use of
tie plates and other protective de-
vices when cedar ties are used AS
the supply of cedar is also running
short, il is necessary for the railroads
to seek further for new tie timber.
One of the woods which has all the
requisites of a good tie, with the eX-
ception of durability. is the beech.
A beech tie generally consists
largely of sapwood. which partly ac-
counts for its lack of durability but
on the other hand, allows a thorough
and easy preservative treatment. In
Germany and France, beech ties have
cay, and are used very extensively.
Beech is found widely distributed
throughout the eastern part of the
United States. and at the present
time is comparatively cheap and
abundant. If. therefore, the rail
roads whose lines are located in the
regions where beech is abundant can
make use of this wood, treated with
some suitable preservative, another
source of supply of tie timber will be
opened up.
Stumpage values have been in
creasing so rapidly during the last
few years that many railroads have
found it necessary to modify their
timber policy, and they yearly apply
preservatives to greater number of
ties and to more kinds of wood.