FOREST PLANTING. 97 



thought to what it must be in the not distant future, we 

 cannot fail to be convinced that the work of providing 

 for it has become a matter of national importance which 

 it were worse than folly to postpone. 



Few persons not concerned in railroad construction 

 have any realizing sense of the enormous draft it involves 

 upon the natural supplies of timber, and few even of 

 those so engaged have considered, as it deserves, the 

 problem of the future supply for the vast region which is 

 now opened to us between the Missouri and the Rocky 

 Mountains, a country rich in various natural resources, 

 but utterly destitute of timber, the one thing needful for 

 the development of its agricultural and mineral wealth. 



Upwards of 50,000 miles of railroad are now in actual 

 use in the United States. 



That their multiplication must go on in a constantly 

 increasing ratio is as certain as that the population of 

 the country must continue to increase. Every mile of 

 railroad requires 2,700 ties, which in the West are mostly 

 of oak, cedar or chestnut, and are worth at least fifty 

 cents each, or $1,350 per mile. They are generally made 

 of comparatively young wood, that is of trees not more 

 than eight or ten inches in diameter, requiring only to be 

 hewn flat on the upper and under surface. The average 

 number of ties cut from a tree of this size is probably 

 not more than two ; but allowing it to be three, which it 

 cannot exceed, we find the number of trees required to 

 furnish ties for the railroads already constructed to be 

 45,000,000. 



7 



