ARBORICULTURE 



381 



search for these ties and remove such as 

 were desired. On September 17, 1903, in 

 company with Mr. Charles Crackel, an 

 old-time resident, I made a search and be- 

 tween Albion and Brown's we found three 

 of the original catalpa ties, all of which 

 were sound and in good preservation after 

 thirty-one years continuous service. 



Thirty-one years ago thirty pound rails 

 and four inch spikes were in use and ties 

 of present thickness were not required. 

 These ties were therefore but five inches 

 thick. In modern reconstruction with 

 ninety pound rails and six inch spikes 

 these sleepers are not thick enough, the 

 long spikes passing entirely through the 

 wood. For this reason most of the catalpa 

 ties have been removed. 



The section foreman, Mr. Wm. L. 

 Wheeler, who assisted in taking out the 

 ties, says he has been on this immediate 

 portion of the road, in some capacity for 

 twenty-one years and has taken out sev- 

 eral car loads of these old catalpa ties 

 solely on account of thinness, none were 

 badly decayed. He never knew one to 

 break as oak ties frequently do when the 

 bearing at times is in the center and rails 

 with weight of trains are insufficiently 

 supported. The wood, he says, holds the 

 spikes perfectly. Mr. Wheeler says furth- 



er that no catalpa ties have been put in 

 track during the twenty-one years of his 

 service here. The ties are eight feet, 

 eight inches in length, being eight inches 

 longer than standard ties now used. 



Many citizens who saw the track laid 

 thirty-one years ago remember these ties 

 and have observed them from time to 

 time. The evidence is complete as to 

 their time of service. During this thirty- 

 one years five sets of white oak ties have 

 been decayed and removed, yet the catal- 

 pa is sound today. 



A white oak tie lasts one-tenth as long 

 as the time required to grow it, while 

 these catalpa ^ties grow in sixteen years 

 and last twice the length of time. 



The telegraph lines of this Air Line 

 Railway were largely of catalpa, several 

 hundred of which still remain in use after 

 thirty-one years of service. One of them 

 was removed and will be placed on exhi- 

 bition with the cross ties. It is but slight- 

 ly decayed just at surface of the ground. 

 The pole is of but six inches thickness and 

 twenty feet length and the probable age 

 of the tree was but ten years. 



A fence post secured in the same loca- 

 tion has a verified existence of sixty-five 

 years, while another has been in use 

 eighty years. 



Preserving Timber. 



The United States department of agri- 

 culture is continuing its investigations on 

 the preservation of timber, with the idea 

 of increasing the lasting quality. Could 

 the duration of service of railroad ties be 

 doubled it would to a considerable extent 

 relieve the pressure on our forests for the 

 supplying of lumber for such use. It is 

 said that the railroads above all others 

 are feeling the growing scarcity of trees. 

 They use every year over 110,000,000 

 ties, merely to take the place of those de- 

 caying and wearing out. This takes no 

 account of the new lines being built. 

 Preservatives are being used on various 

 kinds of trees in the southwest. We know 

 that nature long ago learned how to so 

 preserve wood as to render it as durable 



as stone. Shall we be able to discover 

 her secret? — The Farmer's Review. 



Yes, the secret has been revealed. 

 The catalpa tree has the power of gather- 

 ing from the soil such elements as are an- 

 tiseptic ; these are built into the fiber of 

 the wood and resist decay. These sub- 

 stances are never washed out, never lose 

 their antiseptic qualities, but make the 

 catalpa the most enduring of all woods. 



Several items in this number of Arbori- 

 culture prove this assertion. The fact was 

 known to the North American Indians that 

 the catalpa would last for a century, and it 

 was taken advantage of by the early 

 engineers of the west, who used it when- 

 ever procurable. 



