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oak admits of the injection of antiseptic substances to advantage. The pine, when in- 

 jected, last from ten to eleven years as ties. 



Hitherto these methods of preservation have not been much employed in our country, 

 the prices of timber being still so low that it is cheaper to renew them when they decay 

 than to prolong their use by their preparation as in Europe. 



A time must surely come when this subject will receive attention, but for the 

 present let us consider the amount of planting required for the maintenance of a supply 

 of ties, and how this can be done with greatest economy by the companies owning these 

 roads. 



At the rates we have assumed, there should be from eighteen to thirty acres of wood- 

 land for every mile of single track road. Taking twenty-five as a safe average, it follows 

 that there should be somewhere 2,500 acres of forest for the maintenance of every hun- 

 dred miles of track. This is equivalent to a belt of woodland twelve and a half rods 

 wide along the road, or about three times the width of the right of way. 



But woodlands need protection from cattle and from fires. The former can only be 

 got by fencing, and the latter only by vigilance. It would, unquestionably, be cheaper to 

 have these woodlands in a body, or in parcels at convenient distances from the line. It 

 is further to be remembered that railways must run along the valleys where the land is 

 generally rich and high-priced as compared with that in hilly regions, where the timber 

 would grow just as well. In the end, there might not be much difference whether this 

 woodland was owned and cared for by the companies, or whether they bought the ties 

 from those who grew them. There are always other products from a cutting — such as 

 firewood, and in the oak and hemlock, bark for tanning — that may be saved, and always 

 some timber that is worth more for other uses than for ties. We assume that land for 

 this use can be bought for twenty dollars an acre, and at this rate it will need the in- 

 vestment of $.500 in land, for every mile of track to maintain a perpetual supply of ties 

 for its use. This is the fixed capital in land, without including the cost of planting and 

 management, nor of cutting or delivery. It will undoubtedly be a wise and proper in- 

 vestment of money on the part of railroad companies, by thus rendering themselves 

 independent for the supply of a material as necessary for their use as iron itself. There 

 will arise, and perhaps may now be found, a class of men who would undertake by con- 

 tract the planting and care of such woodlands, and this would doubtless prove the most 

 economical mode of management. 



With reference to the use of wood by railroads for fuel and for bridges, we are for- 

 tunate in finding them both largely decreasing, the former being superceded by mineral 

 coal, and the latter by permanent structures of stone and iron. The tendency will 

 doubtless be much farther in this direction, and with every motive in its favour. In 

 Europe we seldom see a station, or other railroad building, excepting those of brick 

 or stone, and there are no platforms for handling freight, but those of masonry and 

 earth. A shingle-roof is almost wholly unknown and the flooring is very often of brick 

 or stone. 



The substitution of other materials for ties is a very different matter. In the early 

 history of railroads in our country blocks of stone were tried, and proved a failure. In 

 India, where the white ants prove destructive to wood, a bedding has been securetl by the 

 use of bowl-shaped castings of iron, with the convex side up ; and upon some lines in 

 Europe iron ties have been used. Other mineral substances have been proposed, but 

 all of them are much more costly than wooden ties are, and will be for some time to 

 come. 



There are other important motives for planting by railroads that we next notice. 

 The consolidation of embankments, and the fastening of the soil upon the slopes that 

 overhang the track, can be' done in no way so effectually as by the roots of trees and 

 bushes, and for this use those that have tracing roots, and that are continually sending 

 up sprouts at a distance from the parent tree acquire great value, while they could scarcely 

 be tolerated near cultivated grounds. The erosion of banks by streams can best be cor- 

 rected by the planting of alders and willows, and the ravines that are so sure to form in 

 light soils, upon steep banks, from rains, are effectually prevented, even by a dense growth 

 of bushes, but better by forest trees. 



