Cañon City record., 1909-01-21
IMPORTANT PART TIMBER
PLAYS IN PRODUCTION
OF MINERAL WEALTH

Few persons not directly interest
cd in mining realize the extent to
which timber is used in this very i'm
portant industry" said a government
expert in preservation of mine timber
who has Just returned to Washington
from the west. The average man has
onl va vague understanding Of the i'm
portance Of the part that timber plays
in the mining industry, and seldom
thinks of the enormous quantities re-
quired each year to prevent the caving
of the over-hanging ground and to
keep clear the main working pass
ages of mines.
There are two general classes of
such timbers," he continued, the first
is used in bracing the Slopes as they
are called, where the ore is being TAX
en- out. AS the ore is mined, the sur
rounding rock is held in place by
bracing it with heavy timbers framed
into rectangular sets When ore d.
rectly above the first set Is removed, a
second set is built in on top, and SO
on. The service of these timbers ends
when the ore is exhausted and the ac-
tive mining transferred to another
vein or ore-body.
After a time these timbers decay.
to a point where the pressure Of the
rock walls crushes them, and a cave
in occurs. This causes no damage II.
as I have said, the mining work has
been finished; but 1t sometimes hap
pens that decay has weakened the tim
bers to such an extent that the cave
in occurs prematurely and then lives
are sacrificed. In such cases the re-
naming ore is also a loss, for when
the ground has once commenced to
move or work as the miners call it,
Il Ks almost impossible to clean it out
and hold back the rock SO that the
remaining ore may be obtained.
But of still greater importance is
the second class Of tmbers used In the
main working openings, tunnels,
shafts, etc. which are to be maintained
1or as long a time as possible. Tim
hers for this service are chosen not
only for their strength and drmnsss.
but also for their ability to resist de-
Say.
In nine cases out Of ten. when tim
bers are crushed, the indirect cause Is
decay, produced BY low forms Of plant
life. The dwindling of our timber
supply has driven consumers Of wood
all over the country to study decay
aQd its prevention, and 1t Is safe to
say that in the near future we shall
see many more mines putting In small
plants for the treatment Of their
Hmbers, after the pattern of the plants
that have been designed and installed
for this purpose by the United States
Forest Service. BY treating the per-
nanent timbers with some one Of the
various preservauves. they may be
made to resist decay almost indefin-
hely. The additional cost Ia slight.
Not only this. but since timber
when 1t Is once treated retains Its
original Strength. many of the so-call-
cd inferior timbers' which have hith
erto been considered almost valueless
because they decay rapidly, will find
wide use in many localities. Such
species are loblolly pine and, to a
certain extent, shortleaf pine, Engel-
mann spruce, fre-killed lodgepole
pine, white fir. and many other more
local timbers.
The first of the treating plants for
mine timbers was put up by an east
ern coal company after extensive e1-
periments in cooperation with the
Forest Service which demonstrated
the practical value of the treatments.
Since. then other plants have been in
stalled in different parts of the coun
try, two of the latest being in the
Coeur d'Alene lead district of northern
Idaho, where, while there is an ample
timber supply for some time to come.
tn treatment is warranted by the high
labor cost Of replacing timber sets.
The added cost of treating timbers