Silver Fir for Railway Sleepers, &:c. 



By WILLIAM McCOKQUODALE, Forester and Wood Surveyor, 

 Scone Palace, Perth. 



It may be interesting to some of the readers of the Journal to know 

 and look forward to the ultimate result of an experiment I have been 

 recently making to test the durability of silver fir sleepers. 



For man}^ years I have been making searching inquiries of railway 

 officials and others relative to the durability of silver fir as railway 

 sleepers, but have hitherto failed to obtain any information of the 

 slightest value on the subject. 



I therefore resolved, as a last resource, to carry out an experiment 

 which will prove out in a few years an assured test as to the value of 

 common silver fir {Picea pedinata) for railway sleepers. 



With the approval of my noble employer, the Earl of Mansfield, I 

 got four ten-inch sleepers cut out in April, 1876, from a tree seventy 

 years of age, and these were at once set out for seasoning in the open 

 air, where they were allowed to remain for twelve months. In the 

 spring of 1877, I applied to Thomas Winning, Esq., C.E., Forfar, 

 inspector over the Perth and Aberdeen section of tlie Caledonian 

 Eailway, asking his permission and assistance to have them laid into 

 the line at a point convenient for me to look after them. 



Mr. Winning, in the most complacent manner, replied, " I shall 

 be happy to afford yon every facility in my power to enable you to 

 arrive at the information you desiderate." 



The Perth District Inspector, Mr. Fraser, had men then engaged 

 lifting the old sleepers and relaying new foreign ones, near Luncarty 

 station, about four miles north of Perth ; and on the 17th day of 

 April, 1877, I saw the four silver fir sleepers laid into the line along- 

 side the foreign ones. The silver ones are conspicuously marked 

 for inspection, and they shall be carefully looked after and fairly 

 tested. 



As gate and common wire fence-posts I consider silver fir the most 

 durable of all our commonly grown firs, larch excepted. 



In making inspection of woods and plantations over a great part of 

 Scotland I find that silver fir, at all stages of its growth above forty 

 years of age, invariably surpasses all other firs in size, and from taking 

 cognizance of its rapid growth for many years, I am satisfied that it 

 is a tree which ought to be largely introduced into our woodlf^nds. 



