Arizona republican., 1909-04-04
WHY TIMBER DECAYS
 WORK 0F MICROBES
WHAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVOR.
 ABLE TO THEM.
In What Ways They Can Be Ren-
 dered UnfavorabIe.

Albuquerque. N. NJ. April 3.-Piles driven by the. hut dwellers of the Bal tic centuries ago are as sound today
 as when first placed. The wooden collins in which the Egyptians buried
 their dead are still preserved in per
 feet condition after thousands of years
 of service.
 The longevity of timber under these
 two extremes of climate and moisture
 conditions has naturally made people
 ask, What causes wood decay? The
 answer is fungi and bacteria. low
 forms of plant life which live in the
 wood and draw their nourishment
 from it. The little organisms are so
 little that a microscope is required to
 see them, yet their work results in
 the destruction of billions of feet of
 timber each year and the railroad cor
 poration with its cross tie bill run
 ming up into seven figures and the farmer who spends a hundred or so
 dollars year for fence posts are alike drawing upon the knowledge of experts in all parts of the world in ef- forts to learn the most economical and most satisfactory method of pre- serving wood against the inroads of decay. In studying the means of pre- venting decay wood preserving ex- perts have learned many things about the obnoxious fungi which sap the life of timber
 The small organisms can grow eith- CT in light or in total darkness; but all of them require requisite amounts of air. food. moisture and heat If one or more of these essential re- quirements is lacking. they can not live, and the decay of timber will not take place. Wood constantly sub merged in water never rots, simply | because there is an insufficient supply | of air. This condition accounts for l the soundness of the old Baltic piles | On the other hand, if wood can be | kept air-dry it will not decay because | there will then be too little moisture | The timber used by the Egyptians | will hast indefinitely so long as it is | bone dry.
 There are a great many cases. | however, where it is impossible to | keep wood submerged in water, or in | an absolutely air-dry condition. In | fact, a large percentage of the tim Der which is used is exposed to the | weather. and is subjected to decay, | simply because it contains enough air and enough water for the -decompos- ing organisms to get d foothold. De- cay is most serious where the at mosphere is warm and damp, because these conditions are most favorable for it's development. In the coal | mines of Pennsylvania, timber decays in two or three years because the temperature is warm and constant and the air is damp. And in the south, the warm, humid atmosphere often causes the timber to rapidly decompose
 Decay may be prevented by two general methods. by treating the wood with antiseptics, thus poisoning the food supply of the organisms which cause decay and by treating 1t with oils which render it waterproof. A of these two methods is most commonly used, as when wood is treated with creosote which fills up the pores in the timber and keeps out water and is also a powerful an tiseptic.
 The United States government con- siders the investigations of the pre- servative treatment of timber of such importance that the business of one group of men in the forest service is given over entirely to the work of experiments in cooperation with railroad companies and individuals in prolonging the life of railroad ties, mine props, bridge timbers, fence posts and transmission poles. Advice and practical assistance is furnished all who request this advice of the district forester at Albuquerque. The engthening of life of timber means the saving of thousands of dollars through doing away with the heavy expense of labor and cost Df material for renewals.