CROSS TIES 



265 



extensively and constituted nearly all of the tie stock. With the devel- 

 opment of the western extensions and transcontinental lines the demand 

 increased in rapid strides and together with the decreasing supply of good 

 oak, large numbers of ties were collected at central depots and shipped 

 to points of consumption. 



At the present time the oaks still lead in the quantity of ties con- 

 sumed by the railroads, but a much greater variety of species is now used. 

 In fact, practically every tree species in the country is used, at least to 

 some extent, for cross-tie purposes. Most of the ties now cut are made and 

 used in the tracks of the railroads running through the same region where 



Photograph by C. S. Forest Strrtre. 



FIG. 69. "Tie hacker" making ties from lodgepole pine in the Gallatin National Forest, 

 Montana. After felling and limbing the tree, it is "scored" on each side with the axe 

 as shown; then the "hacker," standing on the tree and working backward, "faces" the 

 tree with a broadaxe from the butt to the limit of size suitable for making ties. 



they are produced. The U. S. Railroad Administration has made this a 

 requirement. 



The latest available statistics are for 1915, but the most complete are 

 those published by the Bureau of Census and the Forest Service for 

 IQII. These show that in that year about 135,000,000 ties were used. 

 Of these over 59,000,000, or about 44 per cent, were of oak and over 

 24,000,000 were of southern pine. The next, in order of quantity, were 

 Douglas fir, cedar, chestnut, cypress, tamarack, hemlock, western pine 

 and redwood. These ten kinds supplied 95 per cent of all ties used in 191 1. 



