HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



finish of parlor cars. The wood is now very valuable and regarded 

 as one of the most ornamental of the tropical American woods. 

 Its color varies in shade from a light to orange yellow. It is 

 hard, heavy (about fifty-five pounds per cubic foot), very close 

 and fine-grained, takes an excellent polish, and the most esteemed 

 kind is that which possesses the curly or wavy grain. This latter 

 property renders it one of the most valuable woods for fancy cab- 

 inet or furniture work. Practically all of the curly logs and stumps 

 are cut into veneer. 



There is a closely related tree {Si7iwruba officinale) in British 

 Guiana, Central America, and parts of the West Indies, which fur- 

 nishes a wood nearly similar to the West Indian satinwood. It is 

 called simarupa in British Guiana, and acajou blanc in Guadeloupe. 

 The tree grows to large sizes on sandy soil and on islands in the 

 rivers of the northern part of South America. The wood is of a 

 light color, very fine and even-grained, and is one of the most use- 

 ful woods in the Guianas for interior finish and furniture. The 

 average height of the tree is about ninety feet and produces logs 



from ten to twenty feet long and squares twenty-four inches. The 

 wood is said to repel insects, and it is quite likely that it will be 

 substituted a little later for the valuable wood of Simaruba tulae. 



British Guiana supplies another satinwood botanically called Maia 

 guineeiisis, which has a whitish or yellowish colored heart-wood. 

 This is obtained from a tree closely allied to our persimmon tree and 

 yields a wood that has a satiny appearance and is excessively hard, 

 heavy and very fine and close-grained. It has a very pretty pat- 

 tern, which looks well when polished. In French Guiana this wood 

 is known at satine or satine rouge, and in the Bahamas it is called 

 yellow wood. This satinwood must not be confused with Panii-arium 

 guianensis which is a dark red or brown wood and is incorrectly 

 called satinwood by the French. Maba guineensis grows abundantly 

 and to a large size on a number of the islands of the West Indies. 

 Formerly square logs and planks from nine to twenty inches wide 

 were shipped to England and less extensively to the United States. 

 This wood is sometimes confounded with the East India wood to 

 which it bears a close resemblance. 



IE 



Annual Crosstie Purchases 



The Department of Cojnmerce and Labor, in co-operation with the 

 Forest Service, has published the report for 1911 showing the number 

 of steam and electric railway crossties purchased in the United States. 

 Similar reports have been published annually for some years. They 

 show considerable fluctuations from year to year in the number of 

 ties. Business conditions in the country govern the tie output. The 

 demand from new roads varies, but the purchases for repairs of old 

 lines are fairly constant. 



There is a tendency to change in kinds of woods used, as is shown 

 in detail in the statistics below. This change is largely due to the 

 use of preservative treatment by which woods that are not naturally 

 long-lasting are rendered immune to decay for a term of years. 



An average railroad tie contains about thirty-two feet of lumber, 

 and the total tie output of the country is equivalent to 4,320,000,000 

 feet board measure, or about one-tenth as much as the yearly output 

 of sawmills. The sawed ties are counted with sawmill output, but 

 the hewed ties are not so counted. 



Following is a summary of the report just issued by the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce and Labor : 



While the total purchases of crossties by steam and electric raU- 

 roads of the United States during the calendar year 1911, namely, 

 135,053,000, was less than that for 1910 by 13,178,000, or 8.9 per cent, 

 it was larger than that for any other year since 1907, exceeding the 

 total for 1909 by 11,302,000, or 9.1 per cent, and that of 1908 by 22,- 

 587,000, or 20.1 per cent. Thf steam railroads reported 126,155,000, or 

 93.4 per cent, of the crossties purchased during 1911, w-hile 8,898,000 

 or 6.6 per cent of the total were reported by the electric railroads, 

 as compared with 139,596,000 or 94.2 per cent reported by the steam 

 railroads, and 8,635,000 or 5.8 per cent by the electric railroads for 

 the preceding year. It will be noted, therefore, that the entire de- 

 crease from the figures of 1910 was in the number of crossties pur- 

 chased by the steam railroads, while an actual increase of 263,000, or 

 3.0 per cent, is shown in the reported total purchased by electric rail- 

 roads. In this connection the large decrease in the total number of 

 crossties purchased for new track during 1911, as compared with the 

 totals for the preceding years, wit(i the exception of 1908, is also sig- 

 nificant. The total purchased for this purpose in 1911 was 11,041,000, 

 as against 22,255,000 in 1910, 16,437,000 in 1909, 7,431,000 in 1908, 

 and 23,557,000 in 1907. 



While oak, as in preceding years, supplied more material for cross- 

 ties in 1911 than any other species, it is noteworthy fhat the decrease 

 in the number reported from this wood in 1910 was 13.0 per cent, as 

 compared with a decrease of 8.9 per cent in the total number of cross- 

 ties cut from all species. Although there was an actual decrease in 

 the number of southern pine crossties reported for 1911 as compared 

 with 1910 of about 2,000,000, the percentage of decrease was smaller 



than that for the total from all woods, being 7.6 per cent. A similar 

 showing is noted for Douglas fir crossties, while an actual increase 

 in 1911 over 1910 in cedar crossties of 710,000, or 9.7 per cent, is 

 shown. There was little change in the number of chestnut crossties 

 reported for the two years. While these five woods have contributed 

 the bulk of crosstie material for mauy years, a significant and inter- 

 esting fact is disclosed by the figures covering the purchases of cross- 

 ties cut from gum, maple and beech. Prior to 1908 the number of 

 crossties manufactured from these three woods was negligible, thougli 

 in 1911 they supplied materLal for 3,591,000 crossties, or nearly 3 per 

 cent of the total from all woods. Eapid increase in the use of these 

 and other relatively low-priced woods during the last two or three 

 years is due mainly to the fact that with an effective preservative 

 treatment, crossties cut from this class of timber will last as long or 

 even longer than untreated crossties made from the more expensive 

 and so-called standard crosstie timbers, such as oak and southern 

 pine. A substantial growth in this practice of treating crossties is 

 indicated by the increasing total number of crossties reported as 

 having been given some preservative treatment during the past few 

 years. In 1907 this total was 19,856,000; in 1908, 23,776,000; in 

 1909, 22,033,000; in 1910, 30,544,000, and in 1911, 31,141,000. 



The following statement shows, by species of wood, the number of 

 crossties purchased in each year from 1907 to 1911, inclusive: 



Kind of wood 1911 1910 1909 190S 190T 



Oak 59,508,000 68,382,000 57,132,000 48.110,000 61,757,000 



Southern pine 24,265.000 26,264,000 21,385,000 21,530,000 34,215.000 



Douglas flr 11,253.000 11,629.000 9.067,000 7,988,000 14.525,000 



Cedar , 8,015.000 7,305,000 6.777,000 8,172,000 8.954,000 



Chestnut 7,542,000 7,760,000 6,629,000 8,074,000 7,851.000 



C-ypress '.. 5.857.000 5.396.000 4,589.000 3,457.000 6,780,000 



Tamarack 4,138,000 .5.163.000 3.311,000 4,025.000 4.562,000 



Hemlock 3,686,000 3,468.000 2,642,000 3,120,000 2,367.000 



Western pine.... 2,696,000 4.612,000 6,797,000 3,093,000 5,019,000 



Redwood 1,820.000 2,165,000 2,088,000 871.000 2,032,000 



Gum 1,293.000 1.161,000 378,000 262,000 15,000 



Maple 1.189,000 773.000 168.000 151,000 



Beech , 1.109.000 798,000 195.000 192,000 52,000 



.Ml other 2,682,000 2,895,000 2,603,000 3,421,000 5,574,000 



All kinds 135,053.000 148,231,000 123,751,000 112,466.000 153,703,000 



American Business Methods Appreciated 



The characteristic promptness with which American lumbermen 

 fill orders is appreciated in Australia, and dealers in that country 

 buy here rather than wait for the slow delivery from their own 

 forests, ' ' One ' of the great drawbacks to the use of Australian 

 timber, ' ' says the Melbourne Age, ' ' is that it is impossible to get 

 it properly seasoned. Leading manufacturers buy their wood in 

 the log, cut it up, and season it themselves, keeping it for years 

 before they use it. It is easier to obtain timber from North 

 America than from Queensland. An order can be given for Amer- 

 ican timber and it is .supplied at once, but if an order is given 

 for Queensland timber it is months before it is received." 



