REMARKABLE SALE OF RESERVE 



TIMBER 



A Million and A-half Ties to be Cut, a Large 

 Percentage from Material Once Without a Mar- 

 ket, but Now Made Servicable by Preservation 



C" ROM several aspects a striking in- 

 * terest attaches to the recent sale 

 by the government of about 50,000,000 

 feet of timber on the Montana division 

 of the Yellowstone Forest Reserve to 

 a contracting company which will con- 

 vert most of the timber into railroad 

 ties. 



This is one of the largest sales ever 

 made of government timber ; the price 

 is advantageous, and a large percent- 

 age of the cut will be of a species 

 which a few years ago was without 

 market value, namely, lodgepole pine. 

 Further, it may be said with assurance 

 that had not the preservative treat- 

 ment of ties been shown to be both 

 practical and economical, such a sale 

 could not now have been made, for 60 

 per cent of the cut, or approximately 

 1,000,000 ties, is to be treated with 

 preservatives by a process which ex- 

 periment and trial have placed on a 

 sound business basis. 



The purchasers of the timber have 

 contracted to supply the Chicago, Bur- 

 lington and Quincy and the Northern 

 Pacific railway companies with ties for 

 a period covering three years. The 

 timber for which they applied to the 

 government consists of lodgepole pine, 

 red fir, and spruce. A large propor- 

 tion of the stand is lodgepole pine, 

 which grows very densely. Conse- 

 quently after all the specified timber 

 has been removed, a plentiful stand of 

 young trees will be left, which in a 

 few years will again form a forest of 

 merchantable dimensions. 



The government will receive a 

 stumping price of $2.50 per thousand 

 feet for the red fir and $2.00 per thous- 

 and feet for the spruce and pine. 



The story of the entrance of lodge- 

 pole pine into the timber market is an 

 interesting chapter in the history of the 

 use of forest products. Five years ago 

 this tree was classed among the nearly 

 worthless, inferior timbers growing in 

 the northwestern states. It had never 

 come into extensive use. Its liability 

 to attack by fungus and to check in 

 drying, its softness and lightness, and 

 the large percentage of sapwood in its 

 structure were disadvantages which 

 seemed to handicap it permanently. 

 Yet the possibility and the need of 

 finding substitutes for scarcer woods 

 had already led to the closer study of 

 a number of unexploited species, and 

 devices were being sought by which 

 artificial treatment might be made to 

 take the place of natural adaptability 

 to a specific service. 



Among these devices were improve- 

 ments in seasoning methods and the 

 use of preservatives. It was found 

 that preservative treatment, which 

 greatly prolonged the life of certain 

 timbers, depends largely for its success 

 upon the penetrability of the wood, 

 which permits the preservative to en- 

 ter the wood substance easily. The 

 loblolly pine was seen to be exceed- 

 ingly well adapted for preservative 

 treatment, and also lodgepole pine, 

 whose softness is combined with a high 

 degree of permeability. In 1902 the 

 seasoning and preserving of lodgepole 

 pine was thoroughly taken up by the 

 Forest Service, in co-operation with 

 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 

 Railroad and with the present pur- 

 chasers of reserve timber in Montana. 

 The results established its serviceabil- 

 ity and thus opened a new field for the 

 supply of ties, upon which the rail- 

 roads are drawing so heavily. 



