ifCi Future T/e Materials in the U. S. ^Sf^'' 



IPinsBinl 



Ini/infin'm 



Editor's Note 



•rill- l.jllowin!; liiipir (Hi tin 

 riesi'ivi-is' AssiKiiitloii wlitcli w 



WOOD IJKCORD. 



It is somotinies expedient to take a thouglitfiil locik iilieud, and 

 this condition is now present in the crosstie industry of this country. 

 It is a distinct and a somewhat peculiar branch of the lumber busi- 

 ness. The demand for material is great, with a constant tendency 

 to increase, and with assurance that the demand will continue. The 

 substitute question has not seriously entered the cross-tie business. 

 Scores of patents for metal and other composition and combination 

 ties have been issued, but for all practical purposes such ties may be 

 ignored. They cut practically no figure at all in the supply in this 

 country because they are not used. Wood is furnishing and, as far • 

 as can be foreseen, it will continue to furnish the ties. 



Kew lines will be built, but even if demand for new tracks is 

 io-nored the call for ties for repair work will continue and it must 

 be met. The general public may not be aware of tbe fact that 

 seven crossties are used for repairs and renewals for every one that 

 goes into new lines. Of the 126,155,000 ties bought by steam and 

 electric roads in 1911, only 11,041,324, or 8.2 per cent, went into new 

 construction; the others were for renewals, and the proportion used 

 for renewals was still higher in later statistics. This is an effective 

 answer to the argumeut sometimes advanced by poorly informed per- 

 sons, who say that the country's railroads are now practically all 

 built and the demand for ties will soon fall to a small percentage of 

 what it now is. 



Two things are wrong with this argument. First, the building of 

 new lines is not at an end, nor anywhere near it ; and second, if it 

 were so, the call for ties would not greatly diminish, because tracks 

 will have to be maintained, and the principal demand is for repair 

 work. The fact must be accepted that enormous quantities of ties 

 must be provided every year as far into the future as men are now 

 jjrivileged to look; and the question which demands a practical answer 

 is, where are these ties to come from? Are the forests producing 

 them as fast as they are wanted, and, if so, will the supply continue 

 in the future or will it decline? 



It is not necessary to sound a sensational alarm. The country 

 does not want sensations; it wants facts and careful conclusions. 

 A good many scares on account of the lumber situation have turned 

 out to be less warranted than at first was supposed, and it is unuei-ts 

 sary to repeat the experience; but the situation demands attention. 



In round numbers, 125,000,000 crossties are needed yearly. This 

 is equivalent to 4,000,000,000 board feet, and the ties cost the rail- 

 roads approximately $15 per thousand feet, board measure. Prac- 

 tically the entire quantify is cut from nine or ten kinds of wood, 

 chief of which are oak, i)ine, Douglas fir, cedar, chestnut, cypress, 

 tamarack, hemlock and redwood. Specifications sent out by the prin- 

 cipal railroads of the country list seventy-eight woods that will be 

 accepted for ties; but many of these are simply subdivisions of the 

 oaks and pine, though a number of the so-called minor species are 

 named. 



A casual examination of crossties statistics will suffice to show that 

 a few woods are furnishing most of the material, although the for- 

 ests of the United States contain over 500 different species of wood. 

 It might be supposed that when the few woods which now are fur- 

 nishing the bulk of the ties become scarce, the tie cutters can simply 

 switch off to some of the 500 other kinds and go on cutting. That 

 would be a simple solution of the problem if it were practicable, but 

 sei'ious obstacles are in the way of doing it. Four out of five of the 

 forest trees of this country, taken as they come, are unfit for any 

 kind of crossties, and must be left out of all consideration, both for 

 the present and in the future. They are either too small or too 

 scarce. 



The kinds of wood and the number of ties bought in 1911 by steam 

 and electric roads in this country are shown in the list which follows: 



Oak .'JO.SOS.OOO 



Southern pine 24.265.000 



iLiUKlas lir ] l,2.j;i,000 



Wostcrn pine 2,606,000 



Cedar 8,015,000 



Chestnut 7,542.000 



Cypress 5.857,000 



Tamarack 4,138,000 



Hemlock .-5,686,000 



Redwood 1.820,000 



Gum 1,283,000 



Maple 1,189,000 



lieech 1.109,000 



.Ml others 2,682,000 



Total l.'J5,05.'i,000 



Nearly half of the ties are oak and about half of the remainder 

 are pine. These two woods constitute sixty-five per cent of all. The 

 largest demand is made on oak, because it has been regarded as the 

 best tie wood, all things considered; and the first indications of dimin- 

 isliing supply are seen there. The railroads can still buy all the 

 oak ties they want if they are willing to pay the price; but the con- 

 tractors are obliged to go farther to get them, to take a little lower 

 class of trees, and to charge more for the ties. In some localities 

 no scarcity is apparent, but when the country as a whole is considered, 

 it is quite noticeable. In Arkansas, for instance, the supply may be 

 somewhat ahead of demand at times, while in Pennsylvania, Ohio 

 and New York the railroads may have trouble in procuring the oak 

 ties they need. Some regions which formerly had more oak than 

 they could use now have little or none. There is no question that 

 oak in this country is being cut much faster than it is growing, and 

 it is only a matter of time until scarcity will be everywhere felt. 

 This is probably true of white oaks more than of red oaks, as far as 

 ties are concerned, but it holds generally for all oaks. Most ties are 

 cut from small trees, and this practice strikes the oak supply of the 

 future in a vital spot; for a tree that will make three or four ties 

 now would be good for as many saw-logs some years hence. The 

 oak-tie cutters, therefore, while utUizing a good deal of material 

 which would otherwise be wasted, are industrious destroyers of pros- 

 pective forests. They take the trees that are coming on, and the 

 railroads, as well as other industries, will miss these trees in years 

 to come. If white oak ties could be had when and where needed, 

 and at reasonable prices, railroads would use few of any other wood. 



The second important crosstie source is pine. The four southern 

 yellow pines are considered best in the pine class, and long leaf pine, 

 being harder and more durable than the others, is at the head of its 

 class. This is the tree commonly known as Georgia pine, hard pine 

 and heart pine. Two other southern yellow pines are largely cut for 

 ties, short leaf and loblolly. They are softer than long leaf pine and 

 decay more quickly when exposed to the weather. Statistics do not 

 show the relative numbers of ties cut from the different southern 

 yellow pine, but all are important. 



Long leaf pine grows slowly and reproduces poorly. When present 

 forests are cut little more need be expected from that tree. The 

 situation is much the same with short leaf pine, but not with lob- 

 lolly, of which more will be said in a future paragraph. 



It is thus seen that white oak and southern yellow pine, which 

 at present are the chief sources of ties, are being depleted. The 

 process is not so rapid as to call for immediate alarm, but the ten- 

 dency is unmistakable. Much northern white cedar remains, but its 

 growth does not half make good the cut, and any increased demand 

 would quickly bear results in lessened supply. In other words, there 

 is not enough of this cedar to last long if tie-cutters should under- 

 take to make good there what they will soon lose in white oak. The 

 same holds for hemlock and tamarack. They are as important now 

 in the tie business as they will ever be, but they may hold their own 

 for some time. 



Chestnut is a substantial tie material, but it is now passing through 



