THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 23 



in large quantities is needed to mine our metals. 

 Every pound of iron, every ounce of gold, requires 

 wood in its mining, wood in its manufacture, wood 

 in its transportation. There is hardly a utensil, a 

 tool, or even a machine, in the construction of 

 which wood has not played a part, were it only 

 to furnish the handle or the mould or pattern. 



The articles, useful or ornamental, made wholly 

 or in part of wood, are innumerable. Our houses 

 are filled with them, our daily occupations necessi- 

 tate them wherever we are. For our means of trans- 

 portation we rely mainly on wood. Our 260,000 

 miles of railroad track (190,000 miles railroad), j.*^ 

 the carriers of civilization, lie on not less than 

 700,000,000 of wooden ties and need 140,000,000 

 annually for renewals ; l they run over more than 

 2000 miles of wooden trestles and bridges, they 

 carry their passengers and freight in over i ,000,000 

 wooden cars, and much of the millions of tons of 

 freight is shipped in wooden boxes and barrels, and 



1 This drain on our forest resources for railroad ties or sleepers, 

 which requires a wasteful use of our most durable timbers, is gradu- 

 ally being reduced by preservative processes which lengthen the 

 " life " of ties, and it bids fair to be soon avoided by the use of 

 metal ties, which, except in initial cost, have proved themselves 

 superior in all other respects. Their use is long past the experi- 

 mental stage in other countries, there being, in 1894, not less than 

 35,000 miles, or 9 per cent, of total track lying on metal, while the 

 cheap initial cost of wooden ties in the United States has retarded 

 their use here. Very exhaustive reports on the metal tie question 

 were published by the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of For- 

 estry, in Bulletin No. 4, 1889, and Bulletin No. 9, 1894. 



