242 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



UNTREATED TIES PILED IN YARD AND TRAM TRACKS. ESCANABA. DELTA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



There has never been a successful substitute for the wooden tie and engineers are willing to 

 admit there never can be. When treated with preservatives a large measure of perma- 

 nence is added to their other good qualities. 



certain sections of the country may be 

 better appreciated when it is stated 

 that from 20 to 25 per cent of the eastern 

 white pine, from 25 to 30 per cent of 

 the California white pine, 2 per cent of 

 spruce, 75 per cent of the hemlock of 

 Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, 

 and 20 per cent of the yellow pine is 

 made into containers of various sorts. 

 A recent authority credits the cracker 

 industry with having used 75 million 

 feet of lumber for cracker boxes in 1912, 

 canned goods packers 350 million feet, 

 piano box manufacturers 250 million 

 feet, apple box manufacturers 200 

 million feet, soap box makers from 75 

 to 100 million feet, starch box manu- 

 facturers from 75 to 100 million feet, 

 fruit and vegetable package manufac- 

 turers from 150 to 200 million feet, and 

 boxes for standard oil products 300 

 million feet. 



The lumbermen have within the last 

 few years become greatly alarmed over 

 the heavy inroads fiber boxes have made 

 into their trade and have been endeav- 

 oring to hold their market at any cost. 



They have only met with a partial 

 measure of success, since the fiber pack- 

 age is lighter in weight and its sale has 

 been more widely and persistently 

 pushed than has the wooden box. 



Another important product which is 

 now being discriminated against in 

 some sections is the wooden shingle. 

 This had been one of the most common 

 forms of roof covering in use in this 

 country and for many years its value 

 for this purpose was unquestioned both 

 from the standpoint of wearing quality 

 and of cost. There are today few if 

 any roof coverings which give such good 

 satisfaction, which can be placed on a 

 building for as low a cost, which can be 

 repaired as cheaply and readily and 

 which give greater value for the money 

 than do first class wooden shingles. 



They have been discriminated against 

 in some cities on account of the fire 

 hazard which is supposed to attend their 

 use but which has undoubtedly been 

 exaggerated, at least in some cases. 



The chief competitors of shingles are 

 a host of prepared roofings of a wide 



