84 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: MONTHLY BULLETIN 



While this timber was used only locally for posts there was not 

 much said about its durability; but when it began to be shipped 

 extensively, landowners began to inquire about its worth. Toledo 

 is one of the principal markets for this material; and from there 

 large quantities are shipped over Ohio as well as Indiana, Illinois, 

 Michigan and New York. 



Investigations regarding durability. To determine the value 

 of tamarack for fence posts, the Ohio Experiment Station has made 

 some investigations in those sections where the timber has been 

 used for the purpose in the past. Numerous fences were found in 

 Lenowee and Hillsdale counties, Michigan, where the timber has 

 been in use for the last 25 or 30 years. It was found that the gen- 

 eral opinion of farmers, who had used the tamarack for posts, dif- 

 fered widely as to its durability; some saying that it is not worth 

 setting and others that it is very good. The general impression 

 among them is that it is poor. A number of farmers compared it 

 with "swamp oak," presumably swamp white oak, expressing a 

 preference for the oak. There are numerous small lakes in the 

 counties mentioned and around these lakes are swamps where the 

 tamarack grows. During the past 30 years most of these swamps 

 have been cleared and the tamarack has been used quite extensively 

 for fence posts and telephone poles. These fences were located and 

 examined post by post. Having located a fence, the following data 

 were collected concerning it : age, soil, drainage, time of year posts 

 were cut, seasoning, size of posts, distance apart in fence, and any 

 other data that might effect durability. Then every post in the 

 fence was examined individually and its condition recorded in a 

 blank book. Forty-three fences containing 1,744 posts were exam- 

 ined in this manner. Fourteen representative fences are selected 

 from the 43 and their ages and percentage of sound posts given in 

 the following table : 



Age of fence Percentage of posts 



in years still sound 



Average age 11 years Average percent sound 55 



