USE OF THE FOREST 145 



to hold whatever the post is intended to support. Flimsy 

 sap wood posts of cedar or any other timber can only 

 injure the market, for it is here as in all kinds of dealing, 

 good or poor ware and good or poor measure make 

 and unmake the market. 



Where posts are in good demand it will often pay to 

 treat a few acres of the woods as coppice. For this pur- 

 pose the rotation is short, and, of course, only durable 

 woods like white oak, chestnut, locust, catalpa, mulberry, 

 etc., should be used. 



Railway Ties. With durable timber, the trees twelve 

 to sixteen inches diameter, breast high, and also the upper 

 logs of larger trees are often profitably cut into railway 

 ties. These ties are usually required eight feet long, 

 seven inches thick, with two parallel faces eight inches 

 wide, and all bark removed ; thus, each contains about five 

 cubic feet of wood. When in the track one face is down 

 and the other supports the steel rail. Ties are usually 

 hewn to finish wherever the tree is felled. A common 

 way is to fell the tree, hew two faces as far up from the 

 butt as the stem is suited to make ties, and then to cut 

 the ties with the crosscut saw. 



Formerly railway companies would buy only hewn ties, 

 but of late years most companies accept sawed ties as well. 

 The sawing may be done by a small portable sawmill, 

 and the tie is either sawed only on two faces or else is 

 squared, i.e., sawed on four sides. This sawing is better 



