The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1909-06-19
ENORMOUS USE
Of RAILWAY TIES
THE PAST YEAR
MILLIONS WERE PURCHASED,
ACCORDING TO REPORT
FROM WASHINGTON.
Preservatives Are Being Used to
Lenthen the Life of the Wood, But
the Great Demand for 1t Continues
Abreast CT the Supply.

Washington, d. c., June 1S.-During
the year 19J s the steam and electric
railroads Of the United States pur-.
chased more than 1l2,000, ,000 cross
ties, costing at the point Of pur-
chase, over $56,0O0,C00. an average of
80 cents per tie. according to statis-
tics Just made pubic by the bureau
OF the census. in cooperation with the
United States Forest Service. This
was some 100000 lies less than the
quality purchased in 1907, when the
total was approximately 53.700 900.
the highest over recorded. The de-
creased purchases in 1908 were. of
course, chiefly due to the business de-
preston which affected every line of
industry. This forced most of the
roads to purchase only the ties which
We're absolutely essential for renew
als, and heavily cut down the pur-
chase for new track In 1908 only
7,iSl,000 croosties were recorded as
purchased for new track as against
23,j57 900 in 1907. Of the total num-
her of ties purchased for all purposes.
the steam roads took approximately
"a per cent, leaving about 6 per cent
for the electric roads.
1t is very interesting to note the
wide range of woods used for cross
ties. The preliminary report of the
census bureau lists separtely fifteen
classes or species. Of these the oaks
are now and have always been BY far
the most important The oak ties
amounted to more than 4S.000,000, OF
AZ per cent of the total quantity pur-
chased Next to these ranked the
southern yellow pines, with u 100000,
or 10 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 supplied more
than 100000 ties each, and Douglas
fir nearly as much. About 100000
tamarack ties were purchased, nearly
3,5OO.000 cypress ties, and, in round
numbers, 10000 each of western
pine and hemlock. Redwood. white
pine, lodge pole pine, gum beech,
spruce and several other woods were
used in smaller quantities.
White Oak Preferred.
While the oaks, and particularly the
white oaks, have always been the pre-
ferred woods for crossties, and still
form a large proportion of the total.
the increasing prices which the oads
have had to pay for satisfactory oak
ties are forcing them to look more
and more for substitutes. This ac-
counts in part for the great variety of
wood reported. White oak, untreated,
makes tie which gives excellent SER
vice for many years, but it has been
found possible to take woods which
naturally are not durable, give them
treatment with either creosote or
zinc chloride, which will prevent de-
| cay, and thus get much longer serv-
ice from them than can be secured
from 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 lodge pole pine.
, This years statistics adds TO the
list two kinds of crossties which pre-.
yiously had not been reported in SUI
ficient quantity to justify listing them
separately. These are gum and beech.
The purchases Of gum ties in 1908 ex..
ceeded $50, coo, while but slightly mut4.
than $1,000 Of them were reported ir
the previous year. OF Eeech ties, the
purchases in 1908 amounted to nea lg
10000, against but little more than
81 900 in 1907.