174 FOREST UTILIZATION WOOD USES AND ECONOMICS 



Lumber constitutes about one-half of all the materials cut in our 

 forests annually. The balance is made up of the following: 



ITEMS PERCENTAGE 



Fuelwood 27.6 



Hewed ties 4.4 



Fence posts 4.3 



Pulpwood 4.1 



Mine timbers (round) 1.6 



Veneer logs 1.6 



Slack and tight cooperage 2.2 



Logs and bolts used in miscellaneous manufacture 1.1 



Shingles .9 



Miscellaneous, including export logs, poles, distillation 



wood, piling, tanning and extract wood, excelsior wood 1.5 



Total of all forest products except lumber 49.2 



Lumber . 50.8 



Total wood consumption 100.0 



The processes followed in producing some of these materials are 

 briefly described as follows: 



2. Cross Ties, Poles, Piling, and Mine Timbers. These are gener- 

 ally primary products of the forest. The tree is felled and cross-cut 

 at selected intervals, the bark is removed, and hewed cross ties are 

 faced on each side. They are produced in rough forms with little in- 

 vestment of capital for machines or equipment, other than axes, saws, 

 bark spuds, tractors, or skidding teams and motor trucks. The pri- 

 mary features and requisites of these materials are durability and 

 strength. Normally, nearly 100 million cross ties are produced in our 

 woods annually. More than 90% of the cross ties used by the rail- 

 roads are treated with some preservative material. This is also true 

 of a large percentage of poles, piling, and mine timbers. The average 

 untreated cross tie will only last about 5 years compared to 25 years 

 for a treated tie. Many of these materials are obtained from farmers' 

 woodlots and small tracts. The following table shows the principal 

 species used for these materials: 



CROSS TIES POLES PILING MINE TIMBER 



Oak (several species) Southern pine Southern pine Southern pine 



Southern pine Cedar (western red Douglas fir Oak (several species) 



and northern and 



southern white) 



Douglas fir Douglas fir Oak Douglas fir 



Ponderosa pine Chestnut Chestnut Chestnut 



Lodgepole pine Lodgepole pine Ponderosa pine Maple 



