146 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



than the hewing; it makes a neater tie and furnishes 

 slabs which may be used for fencing, sheds, etc. 



Usually it pays to select the longest and straightest 

 pieces and saw them into bridge and switch ties, or for 

 trestle timber, for which better prices are paid. 



About sixty per cent of all our ties are made of white 

 oak; nearly twenty per cent are pine ; the rest are red- 

 wood, cedar, cypress, chestnut, etc. White-oak ties gen- 

 erally bring about fifty cents or more per tie, delivered 

 at the track. 



Many of our railway companies keep posters at their 

 stations, offering to buy ties; and nearly everywhere 

 good contracts may be made by one or by several farmers 

 acting together to furnish this kind of timber. Since 

 every mile of railway needs about twenty-five hundred 

 ties, and there are over two hundred thousand miles of 

 such roads in our country, it takes millions of acres of 

 timber to supply a single set of ties. Such a set has to 

 be replaced about every seven years, and thus it is that 

 the railways rank among the greatest consumers of wood 

 in the land. 



Poles and Piling. Long, slender poles of chestnut, 

 white oak, cedar, and other durable kinds of trees are 

 often best sold as telegraph and telephone poles and for 

 piling. For these purposes long, straight, and durable sticks 

 are wanted. They run from twenty-five to fifty feet in 

 length, with an upper diameter from five to eight inches. 



