(From the Forest Service, United States lepartment of Agriculture, 



San Francisco Office ) 



GOVERNMENT ADVOCATES 

 USE OF LODGSPOLE PINE 



Lodgepole pine, of which there are abundant stands in both 

 the -Rocky Mountain and Coast ranges, when treated with preservatives 



ought to serve in the place of red cedar as ^6 timber, says the 

 department of agriculture in a bulletin just issued on Rocky Mountain 

 woods for telephone poles. 



The rapid extension of telephone and power lines in the 

 west is making the question of pole supply one of increasing import- 

 ance. Western red cedar, for long the standard pole timber of the 

 western states, grows nnly in Washington, Oregon, and northern Idaho; 

 and in the states south of that region its cost is high, owing to t3ae 

 great distance over which it must be transported. In addition, the 

 heavy drain on the supply promises to result in increasingly higher 



prices. 



The tendency of lodgepole pine to decay rapidly when in 



contact with the ground has so far kept it out of the field as a 

 competitor of the cedar, according to the department, but the general 

 adoption of preservative treatment by railroad and telephone companies 

 changes the situation. At an additional cost for treatment that still 

 leaves the pine pole the cheaper of the two in most markets outside 

 the cedar region, states the department, the pine may be made to last 

 longer than untreated cedar. Tests carried on at the Forest Service 

 laboratory also showed lodgepole pine to be as strong as the cedar, 



123-F 



