Janiuiry 10, 1916 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



15 



ior all. No reason was apparent why stone ties should not last for 

 generations. 



The trial was a speedy failure. The road bed was so rigid that 

 the engines and cars were jolted to pieces. The shock which the 

 wooden tie had taken up, was not absorbed by the stone substitute, 

 and the rolling stock suffered to such extent that the granite cross- 

 ties were ifoon pronounced a failure and it does not seem that any 

 serious attempt to use them has been made since. 



Metal has been tried in various forms and in numerous situations. 

 OflScial reports of some of these ties have been favorable, if one 

 may judge by the reading of the reports; but the outstanding fact 

 is that the metal ties have not been much used in this country. Some 

 years ago the government thought it worth while to investigate the 

 various patented crossties. Most of such were metal or metal in 

 ■combination with something else. Two reports, aggregating about 

 • five hundred printed pages, were published by the government. The 

 patents were so numerous that the lists alone occupied several pages 

 ■of the reports, and there were long descriptions of the numerous de- 

 vices intended to do away with the wooden tie in raUroad building. 

 The tone of the reports leaves the impression that the government 

 agents were in sympathy with the substitute ties and were making 

 out as good a showing as possible in their favor. Numerous in- 

 cidents were cited of metal ties that had been apparently successful 

 in foreign countries. 



Actions speak louder than words. In spite of the sympathy shown 

 the patented crossties in government reports, these substitutes all fell 

 flat so far as practical use in tracks has gone. They are not heard 

 of any more. They must have proved failures under American rail- 

 road conditions. In many instances the cost was excessive; but 

 first cost would scarcely have stood in the way of the use of metal 

 ties if they had proved suflSciently durable and otherwise satisfactory. 



Wood stiU stands supreme as tie material in this country. Cheap- 

 ness is in its favor, always has been, and probably always will be. 

 Crosstie timber is one of the surest and quickest returns from practical 

 forestry. A tree is large enough for ties long before it may be 

 profitably cut for saw timber. Different woods possess different 

 values for ties; but almost every species that attains sufficient size 

 may be used. Oak leads in number of ties in use, followed in the 

 ■order named by southern pine, Douglas fir, western pine, cedar, chest- 

 nut, cypress, tamarack, hemlock, redwood, white pine, lodgepole pine, 

 gum, spruce, beech, and many others. These include practically the 

 whole range of American forest trees. 



Two properties of wood are desired, durability and hardness. The 

 iormer quality resists decay, while hardness enables the tie to wear 

 well and to resist the cutting of the rails and the crushing and grind- 

 ing where the timber rests on stone ballast. Some ties of soft 

 species like redwood and white pine may wear out before decay 

 destroys them, while others, such as red oak, fail through decay. 



Metal plates beneath the raUs shield soft woods from rail cutting, 

 while preservative treatment lengthens the life of woods subject to 

 quick decay. Both methods are in use and add much to the value 

 •of wooden ties. 



Where the Forester Is Helping 



MANY LUMBERMEN WERE SKEPTICAL of the practica- 

 bility of the national forest policy when it was originally 

 instituted, but the activity of the foresters connected with the 

 Forest Service has demonstrated their worth and the value of a 

 national forest policy so convincingly that the most skeptical have 

 long been converted to the idea. It is certainly a fact that one of 

 the most direct benefits that will accrue to lumbering and to lum- 

 bermen is to result from the close personal contact on the part of 

 a government institution with the factors and new problems which 

 confront the lumber industry of this country. Were it not that 

 the acquisition and administration of the national forests neces- 

 sarily throw the forestry department of the government in direct 

 contact with the lumber business and hence compel the Forest 

 Service to recognize the lumberman's problems, it is quite likeh' 

 that these problems would never be fully appreciated in Washing- 

 ton. Thus the service acts as a practical go-between connecting 

 the lumber industry with the administration in a way which is 



going to materially help the lumbermen in the presentation of 

 their problems. 



The active working of these conditions is strikingly set forth 

 in the annual report of Chief Forester Graves, which was recently 

 released. Mr. Graves makes the direct statement that the finan- 

 cial burdens resting on private owners of uncut timber have 

 forced the manufacture of lumber without regard to market de- 

 mands, and with conseqent demoralization of the lumber industry 

 and wasteful use of timber resources. It is forcefully pointed 

 out that the condition confronting lumbering in the United States 

 is related primarily to the necessity for carrying enormous quan- 

 tities of raw material, exploitable only during a long period of 

 time, in private ownership, thus showing a vast differentiation 

 between lumbering and other industries and necessitating pro- 

 tective measures which are not required in other manufacturing 

 lines. It is pointed out that this load of uncut timber, with its 

 far-reaching financial burdens, hampers or prevents the private 

 operator from adapting his business to the changed conditions of 

 his market and to the competitive factors of more or less recent 

 developments, all of which means that financial and economic 

 conditions necessarily compel the lumberman to operate to a large 

 extent independent of actual market influences and without re- 

 gard to wastefulness of forest resources. 



The frank recognition of these conditions by the head of the 

 Forest Service and the fact that the matter is being handled with- 

 out gloves by the service in co-operation with the Federal Trade 

 Commission investigation gives ample ground for hope for the 

 future. 



Saving the Scraps 



WHEN THE MISSISSIPPI'S ANNUAL FLOOD inundates the 

 country for miles on both sides, the lumberman is prone to 

 believe that the principal loss falls on him. His logs and lumber 

 are scattered, some beyond recovery, and some suffer much injury. 

 The farmer is fully convinced that the burden falls heaviest on him, 

 because his fences, sheds, coops, and pens depart on the crest of 

 the flood, and calves, hogs, poultry and cows swim away to that 

 bourne whence no animals ever return to their owners. 



There is another heavy sufferer in the Mississippi floods according 

 to the latest report of the Commissioner of Fisheries who has just 

 published the story of losses from his viewpoint. He considers the 

 loss of fish as one of the very serious matters connected with the 

 annual overflow of the great river. It might be supposed that the 

 fish would be about the last kind of property to suffer on account 

 of high waters; but there are two sides even to that question. The 

 commissioner explains the source of the loss and the steps taken 

 to lessen it thus : ' ' The Bureau of Fisheries has done and is doing 

 much for the conservation and utilization of food fishes which have 

 lieretofore been wasted. Each year, when the Mississippi and Illinois 

 rivers, with their various tributaries, overflow their banks and later 

 recede, millions of young fish are left stranded in temporary pools 

 or where in a short time they would perish. Rescue work is, however, 

 undertaken by the bureau, and in 1915 over eight million valuable 

 food fish were saved and delivered to applicants, deposited in public 

 waters, or returned to the main rivers. ' ' 



This lesson is valuable in that it shows that the policy of saving 

 is being applied in widely-separate fields. While the lumberman is 

 saving the tree tops and the odds and ends at the mUl, the fish people, 

 with all the seas and rivers at their disposal, consider it worth while 

 to rescue the small fry stranded in ponds and pools by receding 

 floods. ' ' Despise not the day of small things " is an old motto which 

 has become the base and groundwork of the conservation policies which 

 are taking such firm hold on the business of the country. 



The amount of depreciation per annum in the machinery equip- 

 ment depends so much on the men at the machines that it is some- 

 times good policy to take something from the depreciation account 

 and apply it to paying higher wages to good men, who will repay 

 it by making the machines last longer and do better work. 



There is some relation between band saws and men, in that they 

 have to be hammered around a little to keep them stiff in the back. 



