328 FOREST PRODUCTS 



Lake States where the northern white cedar is cut, the redwood forests 

 of northwestern California, the western red cedar forests of northern 

 Idaho and western Washington, the southern white cedar swamps of 

 eastern Virginia and North Carolina and the cypress belts of the Gulf 

 Coast. In all of these sections posts constitute a by-product of the pole 

 industry. All tops, small trees and defective poles are made into posts 

 which are principally marketed for the railway trade. Few of these 

 posts are in the round. Most of them are halved or quartered or split 

 posts made from defective butts or crooked poles or tree trunks which 

 will not make satisfactory poles. 



Photograph by U. S. Forest Service. 



FIG. 90. Preservative treatment of fence posts by the open-tank method. The fire heats 

 the creosote in the two barrels through the connecting pipe. 



The development of the great agricultural sections of the central and 

 Far West and the division of the larger farms and ranches into smaller 

 units has greatly stimulated the production of posts on a large com- 

 mercial basis. The subdivision of farms and ranches is still taking place 

 in an important way throughout the West and requires immense quan- 

 tities of fence posts, which often constitute an important part of the local 

 retail lumber yard stock in each community. 



With the growing scarcity of posts and their rise in price the concrete 

 and iron post has been introduced to some extent and will no doubt 

 continue to be used on even a larger scale in the future, particularly 

 in regions where there is a scarcity of good durable post material and on. 



