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The immense consumption of timber for railway purposes, and the protection of the 

 track from snow drifts, makes it highly important that all railway companies should take 

 an active interest in the planting, and where practicable plant trees themselves sufficient 

 for their own needs. The following papers in reference to this important subject are 

 worthy of attention. 



TREE PLANTING BY RAILROAD COMPANIES. 

 By Franklin B. Hough, Chief of the Forestry Department of the United States. 



The freight and passenger traffic of the country having passed in a large degree into 

 the hands of railroad companies with a constant tendency to further increase through all 

 coming time, so far as we can now foresee, it becomes a question worthy of notice, as to 

 how the maintenance of these railroads is likely to affect our future timber-supply, and 

 how far it may be for the interest of the companies owning these roads, to provide for 

 their own wants, by reasonable and sufficient planting. We may also in this connection 

 consider the incidental benefits that may be gained from planting, besides those derived 

 from timber as a material for construction or other use. 



We have in the United States, about one hundred thousand miles of railroads. The 

 past affords a record of steady increase, but how long it may continue, or to what limit 

 it may reach, it is wholly beyond our power to foretell. In a hilly country these lines of 

 travel must necessarily follow the valleys, and a road once made will generally satisfy 

 the demand, unless, as in the Mohawk valley, there be an enormous amount of through 

 traffic from great distances beyond. There must, however, come a time, when the country 

 will be supplied, even in level regions where there are no difficulties from grades to over- 

 come. We will, however, take the facts as they are, and without estimating future in- 

 crease, examine the question of maintenance in the single item of railroad ties, and see 

 what facts show. 



The number of ties to a mile ranges from 2,200 to 3,000, and in some cases as high 

 as 3,500. If we assume that they average 2,500 to the mile we have a quarter of a 

 billion in use. They average eight feet in length, and about seven inches deep and eight 

 wide, giving the contents al)out three cubic feet apiece, or in all six millions of cords. 

 If piled cord fashion, they would form a pile four feet high, eight feet wide, and 4,575 

 miles long. Placed end to end they would span the earth fifteen times at the equator, or 

 in one line would reach miles beyond the moon. 



These wooden ties besides being placed on the ground, partly buried in sand or gravel, 

 and alternately wet and dry, are exposed to great strain and pressure from passing trains, 

 and undcir these combined influences are always tending to decay, so that in a period 

 ranging from three to twelve years, they must be replaced by new ones. Their durability 

 depends most upon the timber, and much upon the soil and the amount of use. We 

 may take their average life at from five to eight years, and we shall need from 30,000,000 

 to 50,000,000 new ties a year for maintaining the present railroads of the country in 

 constant use. 



The number of ties that can be cut from an acre of wood-land varies exceedingly, 

 but, at 500 to the acre, we shall need to cut over from 60,000 to 100,000 acres every year 

 to meet this demand. 



We can scarcely expect trees to grow to the sizes necessary for ties in less than forty 

 years. In some places it would be no more than twenty., and often forty ; but taking 

 thirty years as the average we shall need from nearly two millions to over three millions 

 of acres, or from 3,126 to 4,687 square miles of forest to keep up this supply. In 

 Europe, the beech, which we know is very perishable when on the ground, is made to last 

 from nine to twelve years by various methods of preparation either by the injection of 

 sulphate of copper, at the cost of about twenty cents a piece, or by thoroughly creosoting 

 at eighteen cents, or by immersion in a hot solution of sulphate of copper at about eleven 

 cents, or by external carbonization at six cents a piece. The oak, in Europe, is expected 

 to last in use, as railway ties, from twelve to fourteen years. The sap-wood only of the 



