364 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and owing to the important educational work in connec- 

 tion with the development of forestry, considerable time 

 will be devoted to discussing the best method of carrying 

 on this work and keeping the question of the need of 

 the protection and conservation of our forests before 

 the people. 



The Association of Eastern Foresters will hold a sum- 

 mer meeting with the congress. Governor Locke Craig, 

 of North Carolina, who is very much interested in for- 



estry and who was very instrumental in the passage of 

 the various satisfactory forestry laws of North Carolina, 

 expects to attend the congress and make an address. 



The American Forestry Association is cooperating with 

 the Congress and many officers and members expect to 

 attend ; the Society of American Foresters will meet in 

 Asheville during the session of the Congress, and alto- 

 gether it is expected several hundred forest conservation- 

 ists will attend. 



Wood Preserving Department 



By E. A. Sterling 

 Ex-President American Wood Preservers' Association 



AN investigation which may materially influence 

 the best methods of computing creosote oil pene- 

 tration has been made by Mr. Lowry Smith, 

 superintendent of Tie Plants of the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad. Mr. Smith has supplemented the recommen- 

 dations and conclusions of the committee on wood 

 preservation of the American Railway Engineering As- 

 sociation, to the effect that the unit measurement of 

 pounds per cubic foot is not in all cases desirable, by an 

 interesting table which shows an inconsistency from 

 using this basis of measurement on timbers of different 

 size. The data he has compiled all points towards the 

 advisability of using superficial area instead of cubic 

 contents as a measure of proper creosote retention in ties 

 and structural timbers. Mr. Smith's table and studies 

 will be given consideration by engineering bodies during 

 the coming year, and will probably be the basis for 

 definite recommendations. 



THE Boston Elevated Railway Company, realizing 

 the economic importance of treated ties, bridge 

 timbers, etc. ; the service of which is double and 

 treble that of untreated wood, states through its presi- 

 dent, Gen. Wm. A. Bancroft, that his company will build 

 a small treating plant equipped for the Full-Cell or Ruep- 

 ing Process, to be located at their general yard, South 

 Boston, Massachusetts. 



This plant will have a cylinder eight feet in diameter 

 and fifty feet long. It will be modern in every respect. 

 Plans and specifications are now being drawn up by 

 Mr. Grant B. Shipley, the well-known mechanical engi- 

 neer of Pittsburgh. It is expected that the plant will 

 soon be completed. Mr. E. W. Bright, Tie and Timber 

 Agent, will have charge of its operation. 



IN general it is not feasible, says Howard F. Weiss. 

 Director of the Forest Products Laboratory at Madi- 

 son, Wisconsin, for lumber companies and wholesalers 

 to build and operate their own open-tank or pressure 

 wood-preserving plants, but he believes that there are a 

 few such concerns that might give this matter serious 

 consideration. 



Mr. Weiss made this statement at the annual conven- 



tion of the Wisconsin Retail Lumber Dealers' Associa- 

 tion at Milwaukee. He strongly recommended that re- 

 tailers should carry in stock appreciable quantities of 

 creosote oil, together with appropriate literature de- 

 scribing its proper use, and should sell such preserva- 

 tives along with their lumber whenever it is needed. 

 The preservative could then be applied by the con- 

 sumer in much the same way that paint is now applied 

 to lumber. It will find its particular usefulness in the 

 treatment of timbers which can be kept dry only with 

 considerable difficulty, such as sill timbers in ice houses, 

 silos, etc. In places where decay is very prevalent, such 

 as the foundation timbers in contact with the soil, it is 

 Mr. Weiss' impression that it would be best to build the 

 foundation of concrete or some other material which 

 does not rot, and place the wood structure on top of such 

 a foundation. 



A CCORDING to statistics just compiled jointly by 

 /-\ the American Wood Preservers' Association and 

 the Forest Service at Washington, D. C, there 

 was treated at 102 plants in the year 1915 a total of 

 141,858,963 cubic feet of timber, which compares with- 

 159,582,639 cu. ft. by 94 plants in 1914 ; a decrease in " 

 quantity of about 11 per cent in 1915. Of the 19r5~ out- 

 put, cross ties contributed 78.4 per cent of the total, 

 construction timbers, 8.3 per cent, paving blocks, 5.4 per 

 cent, piling 4.4 per cent, poles 1.7 per cent, and the 

 balance consisted of cross arms, lumber, etc. 



FORTY-SIX per cent of all the coal-tar creosote 

 used in the timber-treating industry last year was 

 imported from Germany and Great Britain. In 

 1914 the quantity was equivalent to 65 per cent, the fall- 

 ing off in 1915 suggesting a scarcity of foreign supplies as 

 a result of the war. 



THE new timber-treating plant at Brunswick, 

 Georgia, which was built, but never operated, by 

 the Brunswick Creosoting Company, has been pur- 

 chased by the Georgia Creosoting Company, a subsidiary 

 of the American Creosoting Company, of Louisville, Ky. 

 The plant consists of two retorts, each 84 inches in diam- 

 eter and 121 feet long. 



