NEWS AND NOTES 



181 



and from thence to Doucette by rail. It is 

 probable that one or more cypress operations 

 will be visited while the students are en 

 route to Texas. 



The class will remain on the holdings of 

 the Thompson Bros. Lumber Company until 

 the middle of June, when camp will be 

 broken and a committee of students will re- 

 turn to New Haven to represent the class 

 at the university commencement. The re- 

 mainder of the class will scatter to various 

 parts of the country for a short vacation. 

 About July i the students will enter the 

 employ of the United States Forest Service, 

 State Forest Commissions and lumber com- 

 panies or engage in private forest work. 



The instruction in surveying, mapping 

 and timber estimating will be in charge of 

 H. H. Chapman, and the study of the log- 

 ging and manufacturing methods in charge 

 of R. C. Bryant, both members of the facul- 

 ty of the Forest School. In addition to the 

 regular instruction there will be a number 

 of special lectures by prominent lumbermen. 

 Among the latter are Mr. Thompson, who 

 will spend some time in the camp with the 

 students and will give a number of talks on 

 subjects relating to the lumber business, and 

 Mr. George K. Smith, secretary of the Yel- 

 low Pine Manufacturers' Association, who 

 for the past two years has addressed the 

 students on the subject of lumber associa- 

 tions, market conditions, etc. 



Railroads Seeking Tie Supply 



That the humble railroad tie is a most im- 

 portant factor in the material development 

 of the country is a great truth that is little 

 understood by people outside of railroad cir- 

 cles. The puffing engine that speeds at the 

 rate of a mile or more a minute over the 

 country is a slave to the two steel rails that 

 insure a smooth and safe road, and these 

 rails in turn depend on the old-fashioned 

 wooden cross-tie which holds them in place. 



Yankee invention has not yet found a sub- 

 stitute which has induced the railroads to 

 give up wood, although experts say that the 

 day will surely come when the country's for- 

 ests will no longer be called upon to supply 

 the demand for ties. Up to the present time 

 it seems that no other material has been 

 found which has the resiliency of wood and 

 which at the same time causes less wear and 

 tear on the rails, fastenings, and roadbed. 



The country's railroads during the last 

 two or three years used 110,000,000 to 

 150,000,000 of sawed and hewn ties a year. 

 The ideal tie timber is white oak, which 

 combines the qualities of durability, hard- 

 ness, strength, and close grain. On account 

 of its wide use, the supply has been greatly 

 reduced and some of the railroads hav-e been 

 forced to pay almost prohibitive prices for 

 ties, or to substitute other and cheaper woods 



to replace the white oak ties rapidly disap- 

 pearing from their lines. 



Over forty per cent, of the ties recently 

 purchased by the railroads of the country are 

 oak, according to latest statistics of United 

 States Forest Service. 



Stumpage values have been increasing so 

 rapidly during the last few years that many 

 railroads have found it necessary to modify 

 their timber policy, and they yearly apply 

 preservatives to a greater number of ties 

 and to more kinds of wood. Substitute 

 woods naturally vary with different sections 

 of the country, but in most cases they lack 

 the two essential qualities found in white 

 oak, namely, resistance to mechanical wear 

 and to decay. Experience proves that wear 

 can be successfully retarded by the use of 

 tie plates and other mechanical devices, and 

 decay can be postponed by the application of 

 proper preservatives. The new conditions 

 have made it necessary for many railroad 

 companies to meet the problem of preserva- 

 tion by establishing treating plants at central 

 points of distribution along their lines. 



Mahogany among Hardwoods 



For refined expression in the manufac- 

 ture and all other forms of interior decora- 

 tion, mahogany is undoubtedly the peer of 

 the hardwoods. A few years ago mahogany 

 was regarded as a very precious wood, and 

 was employed only in the interior of the 

 finest houses and in the manufacture of the 

 most expensive furniture. During the past 

 few years, however, there has been a won- 

 derful development in mahogany importa- 

 tion and use. 



The total quantity of mahogany imported 

 last year was nearly 42,000,000 board feet. 

 Of this large amount North America supplied 

 65.6 per cent, and Europe eighteen per 

 cent. Though Europe supplied only a little 

 more than one-fourth as much mahogany as 

 there was imported from North America its 

 average value per thousand feet was more 

 than twice as much, due to finer quality. The 

 remainder of the imports came from Africa, 

 South America, and Asia. Immediately fol- 

 lowing the war with Spain, lumbermen of 

 the United States exploited the largest and 

 most accessible of Cuban mahogany forests. 

 An engineer employed by American authori- 

 ties during the recent intervention in Cuba 

 claims that nearly all of the available supply 

 of mahogany of that island has been ex- 

 hausted and that what now remains in any 

 considerable quantities is far remote from 

 transportation facilities. 



The number of buyers of mahogany in this 

 country's hardwood market is now exceeded 

 only by those of oak, maple, poplar, bass- 

 wood, ash, birch, chestnut and cypress. The 

 principal reason for the popularity of ma- 

 hogany is that the importers of the logs and 

 the manufacturers of lumber have never ad- 



