31 



over ten years ago. There has been no spreading of the track. I have 

 examined the fe\v ties the rails have settled into, and find none that will 

 not last for a number of years yet by turning them over. These ties are 

 six to eight inches face. ' If they were wider, as you suggest, there would 

 he more resistance to crushing.' With the joint fastenings now in use, I 

 see no objections to making ties, as you propose, from logs twelve inches 

 or more in diameter, by sawing them through the middle ami placing the 

 round side do\vn. The bearing surface would thus be increased 50 to 100 

 per cent. 



The section of catalpa log* sent you was from a tree lying on the ground 

 in a swam]), on a place owned by Mr. Henson, seven miles from Charles- 

 ton. Mr. II. says when he moved on the place forty years ago, the tree 

 was lying on the ground and looked as old as it does now. He says it 

 must have then been lying there at least ten years, and probably very 

 much longer. 



Mr. Henson recently made three hundred and thirty fence posts from 

 one catalpa tree. He also got some good split posts from eatalpa trees six 

 years old. Yours respectfully, 



I). AXTELL. 



The following letter from the Chicago Tribmir of May 21st, 

 1878, should be carefully read and seriously pondered by all 

 who regard the future welfare of our country. Every farmer 

 who has even forty acres of land may do something, by tree 

 planting, to avert the impending calamity so graphically de- 

 scribed : 



POREST-V ANIMALISM. 



OUR DEVASTATED WOODLANDS A CANADIAN MERCHANT ON THE UNITED 

 STATES TIM HER Sri'i-Lv VAST FORESTS WANTONLY DESTROYED. 



The subjoined letter wns received by the Hon. David A. Wells recently 

 fn>m Mr. James 1/ttle, a prominent lumber merchant of Montreal. Mr. 

 Little has investigated the lumber-producing regions of the United States, 

 and he sets forth the result of his investigation with clearness and candor. 

 The result as far as the older States are concerned is startling. Already 

 there are only four States among the twenty-six North of the old slim? 

 line and Kast of the Rocky Mountains whose forests are capable of sup- 

 plying lumber enough for transportation beyond the State limits. Mr. 

 Little goes over the ground thoroughly in his letter, which should com- 

 mend itself for its eomlmied terseness and comprehensiveness, and for 

 the vital importance of its subject to all legislators and public-spirited 

 citizens: 



MOXTUKAI.. Mnii in. 7,s7,v. 

 Tin-: llox. DAVID A. WKI.I.S: 



N/V: 'Hie deeji interrst you are known to take in the subject of politi- 

 cal economy and the freedom of trade induces me to bring under your 

 notice what is, beyond dispute, the most important question in relation 



'"This section of acatnlpu l<>i:. now in my office, is perfectly sound, showing no signs 

 of decay, though it has Uud oij the ground certainly fifty years, possibly one hundred. 



