The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-27
Buying Railroad Ties One Way Whereby A Railroads s Revenue Flows Back To
 The People

There are many ways>fn which the money contributed to railroad for service finds it's way back to the peo- pIe In the year just paseeds& for ex- ample, nearly $1, 200, 900 of the revenue Of the New York, New Haven and Hartford went to people living in it's own territory in return for railroad ties and fence posts which they had furnished to the road. In five years the amount would probably approN- mate $5O00,O00.
 Last year there were purchased for the New Haven properties, including the trol1eys, 8 total of 2,904, $40 ties. For the New Haven road alone 2,376,O00 ties were bought. Some of these ties were creosoted ties and these were of Southern pine. But from people lfv- ing along it's own lines the New Haven bought a total of 2,100,O0O native ties and for these ties it paid the sum of $1, ,075, 900.
 oftentimes ties arc. .rejected because of imperfections, but in such cases the railroad makes a practice whenever possible, to buy them at a 10Wer hg- ure for use as fence posts. For this another S1o0,000 might be added, nnak- ing $1,175,0o0 as the total amount dts> tributed by the railroad in this man ner along its own lines in a single year.
 The money expended for this pur- pose is not paid to few large lumber companies. On the contrary, it has a very wide distribution and is paid to many people in small amounts, such payments running all the way from $12 to $10,0O0 Much of this money goes to small farmers, to people own ing small wood1ots; very often to Wids ows for whom it means additional Fev= enue from their modest farms. For such people the railroad is generally 8 ready and convenient market.
 Anybody can supply ties to a rail- road like the New Haven providing the ties offered meet the specifications and there is no more bother about 1t than that of cutting, saving and strip ping the timber and hauling it to the nearest railroad station. When rail- road wants to buy ties it takes care to post at all of it's stations copy of these specifications with the prices it will pay for the different classes of ties. There are three classes of rail- road ties used on the New Haven sys- tenn, the difference being in their | thickness, but all ties to come up to the requirements have to be eight feet l in length with ends sawed square, a one-inch variation being allowed either | way. They can be of three kinds of | wood-oak, fine chestnut Or cedar, though all switch ties must be of chest ] nut. As all of this wood is native to New England it will thus be seen that 4
 | Tn general, anyone desirous of cash | ing in on some of his wood lot simply has to write to the railroad company
 and is then told when the tie train will be along to call for his ties. All | that he need to then is to pile them up | at his own railroad station and wait
 for the inspector of the tie train to 1 examine them. If he accepts them as conforming to the. specifications they are loaded on the train at once, a mo-
 tice is sent by the inspector to the railroad purchasing agent of the num- Der and class bought and usually in about thirty days the man who sold
 the ties gets his money.
 | While ties are picked up on many points of the system, the larger num-
 Der obtained by the New Haven are purchased in Western Massachusetts
 and Connecticut. Frequently the tie | train on it's trips will pick up as many
 as 1000 ties in a single day.