44 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



of Forest Service men and include material furnished by state foresters 

 and the worU of forest school men. 



The topics which will be of especial interest to lumbermen will come 

 under products and silviculture and will fill a need felt for some time by 

 men who are investigating studies of practical interest to lumbermen. 



Tennessee Summer Resort Country 



Superintendent .7. P. Murphy, of the Little River Railroad, which is 

 owned by the Little River Lumber Company, in connection with the 

 Knoxville & Augusta Railroad, has Just put out a handsome illustrated 

 folder showing the beauties of the Elkmont country, which is the seat of 

 the logging operations of the Little River Lumber Company. This region 

 is one of the most picturesque and beautiful in the United States, and 

 the climate is not excelled in salubrity by any other part of the country. 

 In picturesque features it is very alluring to the camper and sportsman. 



The scores of branches of the Little river down to the gorge, in which 

 the railroad runs, abound in mountain brook trout, while the lower reaches 

 of the main river are well stocked with rainbows. The region is fast 

 being built up with club houses and modest hotels, where the resorters can 

 be well housed and fed. 



The Elkmont region is about seventy-five miles southeast of Knoxville. 

 and is reached b.v the Knoxville & Augusta and Little River railroads. It 

 lies immediately below the great tops of the highest ridges of the Great 

 Smokies — Clingman'e Dome. Siler's Bald and Thunderhead — in the center 

 of the government's new Appalachian timber property, and promises to 

 become one of the best known resort regions of the entire United States. 



Anyone interested in this region can secure a copy of the illustrated 

 folder on application to Superintendent J. P. Murphy, at Townsenfl, Tenn. 



Wisconsin Legislature Enacts Standard Log Scale 



Lumbermen arc interested in a hill which has l>C'.'n made a law by 

 the present legislature establishing a standard scale of log measurements. 

 It is known as the log scaling bill and reads as follows : 

 An Act to repeal section 1737 of the statutes, and to create a new sec- 

 tion to be numbered 1737, relating to the standard scale of log measure- 

 ment. 

 The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assem- 

 bly, do enact as follows : 



Section 1. Section 1737 of the statutes is repealed. 



Section 2. There is added to the statutes a new section to read : Sec- 

 tion 1737. The standard rule for scaling or measuring logs in the said 

 districts shall be in accordance with the following table, showing in the 

 first column the diameter of log at the small end in inches, at the head 

 of each other column the length of log in feet, and in the body of such 

 other colunius the resultant contents of each log in board measure feet 

 of lumber, to-wit : 



»BT4NDiRD SC.ILE OF LOG MEASUREMENT 



Diameter of 

 log at small end Length of log and board measurement in feet, 



in inches. 12. 14. 10. IS. 20. 22. 24. 



10 10 20 20 20 30 30 



7 ■ 20 20 .30 30 30 40 40 



8 20 20 30 30 30 40 40 



f) 30 30 40 40 40 50 60 



10 30 40 00 60 70 S(t no 



11 40 no 70 80 SO 00 100 



12 00 70 80 90 100 110 120 



•The table covers logs up to forty inches in diameter but was cut down 



as shown for convenience. 



Other rules may be used at the request of the owner of logs : but in all 

 such cases the bill of the inspector shall state by what rule the logs were 

 scaled or measured. 



Section 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its 

 passage and publication. 



Poles Purchased in 1911 



Statistics of the number of wooden poles purchased in the United 

 States in 1911, by steam and electric railroads, electric light and power 

 companies, and telephone and telegraph companies, are presented in a 

 bulletin soon to be issued by the liureau of the Census. In 1011 the total 

 purchases of poles in the United Slates amounted to 3.418,020 sticks 

 of timber. Of these, 2,402,724 were purchased by the telephone and tele- 

 graph companies : 787,649 by the electric railroad and electric light 

 and power companies : and 227,047 by the steam railroads. The total 

 number of poles purchased represents a decrease of 452,674 as com- 

 pared with 1910, and of 320,720 as compared with 1909: but it exceeds 

 the totals for 1908 and 1907 by 168.866 and 134.732, respectively. 



The decrease in the purchases of 1911 as compared with 1910 was con- 

 fined to telephone and telegraph companies and steam railroads, while 

 substantial increases in purchases were reported by the electric railroad 

 and electric light and power companies. 



The woods used for poles in the United States are chiefly those which 

 are naturally very durable in contact with the soil. The life of timber 

 under this condition varies considerably according to the species, to dif- 

 ferences in the wood of the same species, to the character of the' soil, 

 and to climatic conditions. Cedar, chestnut, cypress, juniper, and red- 

 wood usually last from ten to fifteen years, while white oak has an 

 average life of somewhat less than ten years. 



The resistance of the poles to decay can be considerably increased by 

 the use of preservatives. Wood preser\ation is now on a firm footing 

 In the United States, but the advantages which this practice affords are 

 by no means fully utilized by pole consumers. Preservatives not only 

 add from three to fifteen or more .vears to the service of the woods now 

 commonly used for poles, but also make it possible to use cheaper woods 

 which in their natural condition lack durability in the soil, although 

 possessing all the other qualitiis necessary in pole timber. The dura- 



bility of woods which ordinarily last but a few years can thus be increased 

 to more than double the normal life of cedar. 



The principal preservatives used for treating poles are those classified 

 as refined coal-tar oils. Under this heading are included creosote oil 

 and various proprietar.v preservatives. Creosote oil was used in treating 

 159.321 poles, of which 50.021 were cedar and 83,035 yellow pine. 



The cost of treating poles varies according to the wood treated, the 

 kind of preservative and quantity used, and the process employed, but 

 it is only in rare instances that the adoption of a pole-treating policy 

 is not economical. The United States Forest Service has a large number 

 of poles treated by different methods under record and subject to annual 

 inspection in order to determine the relative values of the different 

 methods and preservatives. 



The following table shows the total numbers and principal kinds of 

 poles purchased by the several classes of consumers from 1909 to 1911, 

 inclusive : 



Kind of wood. 1911. 1910. 1909. 



Total 3,418.020 3,870,694 3,738,740 



Cedar 2,100,144 2.431.567 2.439,825 



Chestnut 693.4,89 G77.317 608.066 



Oak 199..".no 26.1.290 236.842 



Pine 161.69(1 1S4.67T 179,586 



Cvpress 72,99.1 75.4."i9 77,677 



All other 190.112 230.1S4 196,744 



Experimental Tie Treating 



Much has been published upon the durability of railway ties treated 

 by various preservative processes, but there is little available informa- 

 tion concerning ties treated I)y different processes and laid in one track, 

 where the treatments could be compared. In order to gather data for 

 such a comparison the Forest Service has completed the first stage of 

 an extensive experiment the purpose and scope of which are given in 

 bulletin 126. The ties used in the experiment were ordinary stock, 

 and 100 of each of the two species, red oak and bard maple, were treated 

 by each of six processes, selected so as to include at least one from 

 each general type of pressure processes in common use. Thus, there 

 were treated for the experiment 600 red oak and 600 hard maple tics. 

 and 100 untreated ties of each species were laid. The history of each 

 tie up to the time of laying is recorded, the preservative processes de- 

 scribed, the methods of handling and laying given in detail, and every- 

 thing needful for comparison of results of future inspection carefully 

 worked out. 



In selecting a location for the test track the effort was to secure 

 normal conditions of site and traffic. The location is on a single track 

 of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad, which carries a fairly 

 heavy traffic in both directions. The track at the point where the ties 

 are laid is gravel ballasted, well drained, straight and practically level. 

 Nearly all the treated ties are placed on a fill, but a few included in 

 the test were laid in a cut. 



Screw spikes with flat tie-plates were used on fifty per cent of the 

 ties and the remaining fifty per cent, unprotected by tie-plates, were 

 fastened by ordinary cut spikes. An extension to the original experi- 

 ment included red oak and chestnut ties treated by a commercial plant, 

 and a few spruce ties were used. In order to avoid disturbing the track 

 in the future, new rails were laid at the time the ties were placed, and 

 new fastenings were used throughout. 



It is thought that a series of observations and inspections covering 

 several years will yield valuable information relative to the preservation 

 of timber and its behavior in actual use. The bulletin is illustrated with 

 reproduction of drawings Muii pholn;;r:ipbs of apparatus and material. 



Who Named Sassafras? 



The makers of dictionaries as well as writers of books alx)ut trees 

 seem unable to agree as to the origin of the name sassafras, which Is 

 applied, with certain variations, to a well-known tree with a range cover- 

 ing nearly half of the United States. It was formerly taken for granted 

 that the name came from two Latin words meaning "rock-breaking." 

 The supposed reason for the name was the well-known fact that sassafras 

 roots grow in crevices of rocks which they pry apart. All trees do that 

 to some extent, and sassafras is not peculiar in that respect. 



The latest opinion of lexicographers is that the name is not of Latin 

 origin and that the similarity between "saxifragus'' and sassafras is 

 purely accidental. That is the ground taken in Murray's new forty-five 

 volume dictionary, where a large part of a page is given to the history 

 of the word, as far as it is known. Murray believes that it is an Indian 

 word, but is unable to educe positive proof of it. The earliest known 

 use of the word by a European, in extant writings, was in 1571 by 

 Monardes, a Spaniard. lie thought the word was French, but it seems 

 that the French first used it in Florida, and they must' have adopted 

 It from the Indians : but the Indian word which Monardes gave for sassa- 

 fras was entirely dilferent. Six years after Monardes wrote his book 

 the word was used by an English writer named Frampton, who applied 

 it to the sassafras tree in Florida. A strange coincident is found In 

 the use of a very similar word for the same tree by the Narragansett 

 Indians of Rhode Island. From New England to Florida the name for 

 sassafras was practically the same when used by English, French, and 

 Spanish, indicating that all must have gotten It from a common source; 

 but the mystery is why Indians in Florida and In New England should 

 have used the same word for the tree when their languages were totally 

 different, and there was absolutely no communication between them. 



