ARBORICULTURE 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



Published in the Interest of the 

 International Society of Arboriculture 



Subscription $1.00 per annum 



JOHN P. BROWN, Editor and Publisher. 



Entered as Second-class Matter, January 4th, 1904. 



Vol. VI. 



CONNERSVILLE, INDIANA, MAY, I907. 



Number 3. 



Steel Ties Unsuited for American Railways. 



PENNSYLVANIA RAILWAY ACTS PROMPTLY AFTER THE DISASTER AT MINERAL 

 POINT — RECOMMENDATION OE SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION. 



Timber Must Be Provided By Planting Forests. 



Lj 



"Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 26. — Gen- 

 eral Manager Atterbury, of the Penn- 

 sylvania Railroad Company, has ordered 

 the removal of all steel cross-ties now in 

 use on the line of the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road. This order is the result of the 

 recommendation of the special commit- 

 tee appointed by the General Manager 

 to investigate the wreck of the Chicago 

 special near Mineral Point on Friday 

 night." 



The editor of Arboriculture, him- 

 self a civil engineer, has, during the past 

 thirty-five years, endeavored to induce 

 the railway companies of America to 

 make preparations for providing wooden 

 cross-ties by planting immense forests 

 upon the cut-over lands of former tim- 

 bered tracts. 



Ten years ago I appealed to the civil 

 ^^ngineers and managers of the great rail- 

 ^vay systems not to waste valuable time 

 C£and spend large sums of mone}- in ex- 

 '"iDeriments with metal ties. 



(Extract from J. P. Brown's Catalpa Booklet 

 of 189S.) 



METAE TIES 

 Have been devised in countless num- 

 bers ; some have been used upon Euro- 

 pean lines with apparent success, but 

 they are costly, from $2 to $4 each, 

 reaching about $9,000 per mile, as 

 against $1,500 for white oak. 



Were all American railways as 

 straight as those of Europe, with their 

 minimum grades, and as substantially 

 constructed, metal ties would not be so 

 objectionable, save for their expense; 

 but none of these conditions exist in 

 America. 



Given a mountain railway with ab- 

 rupt curves, often reversed, with the 

 outer rail elevated, a heavy freight train, 

 with half a mile length of cars, an en- 

 gine at each end or a double header, 

 what engineer can compute the complex 

 forces exerted against the rails in many 

 directions as successive portions of the 



