COMMERCIAL USES OF CHESTNUT 



963 



piling them in the familiar snake or zigzag fashion. This 

 form of fence, often called the Virginia rail fence, re- 

 quires no posts. All that is needed to build one is an ax, 

 plenty of rail timber, and the ability to work. The early 

 settlers had all three. Later in the north a form of 

 fence came into use in which the rails were mortised 

 into the posts set in the ground. The advent of barbed 

 and woven wire has banished both forms of rail fence 

 in all save the most remote districts. But it has not inter- 

 fered with the supremacy of chestnut as a fencing wood, 

 for wire must be stretched upon posts. There are woods 

 which make better fence posts than chestnut red cedar, 

 black locust and osage orange, for instance but none of 

 them are so widely distributed or universally abundant 

 as chestnut, and thousands of chestnut posts are set an- 

 nually. Some are sawed, some used in the round, some 

 split out roughly, and some carefully turned to an even 

 taper or an ornamental form. Posts of larger size are 

 frequently used for the foundation of shore cottages and 

 other buildings which are built without cellars. They are 

 not as lasting as cedar, but are easier to obtain in large 

 dimensions, and sufficiently durable. 



The advent of the telegraph and telephone created a 

 demand for large poles. At first, apparently, many woods 

 were used indiscriminately, but for a long time the value 

 of chestnut for this use as well as for trolley and elec- 

 tric light poles has been fully realized. Taking the coun- 

 try as a whole, cedar is the chief pole wood, but east of 

 the Mississippi, where chestnut is available in large 

 quantities, it outranks all other woods used for the pur- 

 pose, and even taking the United States as a whole, 20 

 per cent of the poles used are chestnut. The reason for 

 its popularity are : its convenient form, tall, straight 

 and slender ; its durability ; its lightness and its abun- 

 dance. A 30-foot chestnut pole, 25 inches in circum- 

 ference at the top, if seasoned, would weigh about 1,000 



pounds. A white oak pole of the same dimensions would 

 weigh about 1,700 pounds and would be but little if. any 

 more lasting, but would cost much more. Along the sea 

 coast there is considerable demand for piles for docks, 

 trestles, cribwork and the like. Chestnut trees of the 

 proper dimensions, but not straight enough for poles, can 

 often be used in this way. 



When white oak and locust began to become too val- 

 uable to be used indiscriminately as a tie wood, the rail- 

 roads of the east adopted chestnut as one of their lead- 



Photo by p. L. Buttrick 



CHESTNUT FENCE POSTS 



Chestnut, because of its abundatice and lasting qualities when in con- 

 '*ct with the soil, is one of our leading fencing woods. The advent 

 of barbed wire has decreased the use of rails, but the demand for 

 posts continues. Posts are used in the round, split out, sawed or 

 turned to fancy patterns. 



HEWING OUT CHESTNUT RAILROAD TIES 



Chestnut is one of the leading tie woods of the United States. It is 

 verv durable, but because of its softness it wears out under heavy 

 traffic before it rots. Chestnut sprouts from the North make better ties 

 than the slower growing seedlings of the South. 



ing woods for this purpose. It was almost as durable 

 as the other woods and much more abundant, but as 

 traffic began to increase and heavier rails and train equip- 

 ment began to be used it became evident that chestnut, 

 because of its softness, would not stand up to heavy 

 traffic conditions on main lines, and as the use of ties 

 treated with chemical preservatives increased it was 

 found impossible satisfactorily to treat chestnut. For 

 these reasons it has now been largely relegated to use on 

 light traffic branch lines and trolley roads. Nevertheless, 

 it still remains the leading tie-producing wood of New 

 England and the Eastern States. The second growth 

 chestnut of the North is apt to be harder and heavier than 



