Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-06-21
Find New Material for Cross Ties
Railroads Take Up With Gum aud Beech Absence of More
Desirable Woods.

Washington, June 19-During the
year 1908, the steam and electric
railroads of the United States pIr-
chased more than 100000 cross
ties, costing. at the point of purchase,
over $50 100000, an average of 30
cents per tie, according to statistics
just made public by the bureau of
the CELSIUS in cooperation with the
United States forest service. This
was soma 40. 100000 ties less tina
the quantity purchased in 1897,
1873 700, 900, the highest ever Ie-
corded. The decreased purchases in
1908 were, of course, chiefly due to
the business depression which af-
fected every line of industry This
forced most of the roads to purchase
only. the ties which were absolutely
essential for renewals and heavily
track. In 1908, only 7,431, 900
cross-ties were reported as purchas-
ed for new track as aginst 23,357,-
600 in 1907. OF the total number
of ties purchased for all purposes.
the steam roads took approximately
"a per cent, leaving about six pc"
cent for the electric roads.
1t is very interesting to note ne
vide range of woods used for cross
ties. The preliminary report by the
census bureau lists separately IS
classes or species. OF these the oaks
Iare now and have always been by far
the most important. The oak ties
amounted to more than 5000, 600
or 43 per cent of the total quantity
purchased. Next to these ranked
the southern yellow pines, with 81
100000, or IL per cent of the total.
1t will be seen that the oaks and
southern pines combined furnished
nearly three-fourths of all the ties
bought by the railroad companies
last year. Cedar and chestnut sup
piled more than S,OOO,OUO ties each,
and Douglas fir nearly as much
| About 100000 tamarack ties were
purchased, nearly 100000 cypress
ties, and, in round numbers, 3,000,-
| 600 each of western pine and hem
lock. Redwood. white pine, lodge
pole pine, gum, beech, spruce, and
several other woods were used in
smaller quantities.
While the oaks, and particularly
white oaks, have always been the
preferred woods for cross-ties and
still form large proportion of the
total, the increasing prices which the
| roads have had to pay for satisfac-
| tory oak ties are forcing them to
look more and more for substitutes.
This accounts in part for the great
variety of woods reported. White
oak, untreated, makes a tie which
gives excellent service for many
years, but it has been found impos-
sibie to take woods which naturally
are not durable, give them treat
ment with either creosote or zinc
chloride. which will prevent decay.
and thus get much longer service
untreated oak ties. Among the
/ Woods which have been most largely
treated so far are the yellow pines,
particularly loblolly pine, Douglas
fir, western pine and lodgepole pine.
This years statistics adds to the
. list two kinds of cross-ties which
previously had not been reported in
sufficient quantity to justify listing
them separately. These are gum and
beech. The purchase of gum ties in
1908 exceeded 100000 while but
slightly more than $4,000 of them
were reported in the previous year.
OF beech ties, the purchases in 1908
amounted to nearly $4,000, against
but little more than $1,000 in 1907.
These are woods which are distinctly