150 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



good size. Its life in the ground is quite satisfactory, and for the 

 region it seems to be the best post timber. 



The use of posts is now enormous, and on the increase. Fences 

 requiring them are the only kind now being established in this region. 

 No rail fences are being built, and no hedges planted, except a few 

 in Oklahoma. This being true, a very great demand for posts must 

 ensue and continue from year to year. Since posts sell for higher 

 prices in regions remote from natural timber, on account of added 

 transportation costs, it follows that such regions are the best in which 

 to have an available supply, and, if the conditions are favorable to the 

 growth of timber, plantations will there prove most profitable. But 

 in ten or fifteen }^ears many regions which now have an abundant sup- 

 ply will show a scarcity, and prices will be high, so that in such 

 localities it would be profitable to be planting timber even now. 



TELEGRAPH, TELEPHONE, AND ELECTRIC POWER AND LIGHT POLES. 

 The timbers most used for these purposes are Tamarack, White Cedar, 

 and Red Juniper. Their value is fully known, and if the supply could 

 hold out nothing would displace them. Their life in the ground is 

 about ten years, so that every decade sees one generation of poles 

 worn out and another cut to replace it. To the poles required for 

 renewal is to be added the number required for neAV lines and sj^stems. 

 The total is very large. The telegraph lines of the country require 

 nearly 600,000 poles annually, at a cost of not less than a million dollars, 

 and the telephone and electric car lines and light systems use as many 

 more. The price of poles for such uses varies immensely, ranging 

 from $1 to $50 each. If an advance in the price of post timbers is to 

 be expected in the next fifteen years, a much greater advance may be 

 expected in timbers of this class. A post may be grown compara- 

 tively quickly, and in an exigency almost anything can be used; but 

 a telegraph pole must be long, straight, and of good quality. Timbers 

 that fulfill these conditions are few, and a number of years are required 

 to grow them. When the natural supply runs low, high prices will 

 prevail. The man will be fortunate, then, who has a plantation of 

 salable Red Juniper or Catalpa. Here again the Catalpa will show its 

 excellence. 



RAILROAD CROSS-TIES. The timbers most in use for this purpose at 

 the present time are White Oak, Post Oak, Bur Oak, White Cedar, 

 Red Juniper, and Chestnut, with White Oak preferred. Prices range 

 from 30 to 60 cents each for standard sizes; 620,000,000 cross-ties are 

 in use in the railroads of the country and 90,000,000 are required 

 annually for renewals, taking the timber from an estimated area of 

 200,000 acres. Railroad officials realize that tie timber is becoming 

 scarce, and assert that prices are rising rapidly. Street car and sub- 

 urban lines are now using many million feet of lumber for cross-ties. 



It is certain that timber can be grown for railroad ties at a profit. 



