The most important consumers are the large plants in 

 which railroad ties are treated. The preservatives materially 

 lengthen the ties' period of service, lessen the labor cost in- 

 volved by renewal, and decrease the drain upon the forests 

 due to tie-cutting. To some extent the treatment of fence 

 posts and other forms of farm timber is being taken up, an 

 inexpensive apparatus and method having been devised by the 

 department of agriculture; but as yet the use of good pre- 

 servatives by farmers is on too small a scale to have any im- 

 portance in the total, while the practice of treating telephone 

 poles is in its incipiency in this country. 



"With the rapid advance of this industry as a whole," says 

 the report, "the choice of preservatives has been fairly well 

 established, but the kinds and classes of materials to be 

 treated need development along certain lines. In Germany 

 and other European countries practically all cross-ties laid by 

 the railroads are treated with chemicals or preserving oils. 

 In this country but 30 per cent of the ties purchased by the 

 railroads are subjected to such treatment. The number of 

 poles treated in this country is a very small per cent of total 

 in use." 



THE expression "Fire-proof forestry" may strike one as a 

 rather strange phrase in view of the yearly destruction 

 of the forests by fire, but the point must be reached at 

 some time when the forests shall be practically fire-proof, and 

 that this is not an impossible ideal is proved absolutely by 

 experience in many districts in Europe. The problem may be 

 clearer to the ordinary citizen by comparison with fire preven- 

 tion in the cities and towns. 



Municipal regulations provide for the use of fire-proof ma- 

 terial in the construction of buildings in crowded districts and 



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