246 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



years. Since the advent of concrete, 

 wooden and brick walks have, to a very- 

 large extent, been replaced by struc- 

 tures made from it, which is far more 

 satisfactory than either. This sub- 

 stitution of concrete for wood has been 

 a desirable thing since it 'has reduced 

 the consumption of a high grade of 

 lumber which has since found a strong 

 demand for other lines of construction. 



Another field in which wood is being 

 largely replaced is in the construction of 

 small bridges and culverts on public 

 highways. Formerly these were con- 

 structed almost exclusively of wood. 

 Cheap transportation to market for 

 agricultural products is one of the first 

 requisites for the farmer and this has 

 brought about the construction of a 

 very large mileage of low-grade macad- 

 amized roads of permanent' character. 

 The small bridges and culverts are being 

 given a greater permanency than for- 

 merly by constructing them of concrete. 

 While more expensive than wooden 

 structures, if properly built, they are 

 more permanent in character and reduce 

 the cost of road maintenance. This is 

 in line with efficiency and is desirable 

 from every point of view. 



One of the largest consumers of lum- 

 ber is the railroad industry which has 

 need of immense quantities of wood for 

 crossties, bridge timbers, buildings, car 

 construction, sign boards, and like uses. 



The crosstie situation has been a 

 pressing one with railroad companies 

 for many years due to the rapidly in- 

 creasing price of durable woods and the 

 greatly diminished supply. For years 

 repeated efforts have been made to 

 perfect a tie made from material other 

 than wood, which would fulfil the rail- 

 roads' needs, but so far the results have 

 not been satisfactory. Steel ties of 

 various patterns have been patented 

 and numerous forms of reinforced con- 

 crete ones have been offered but all have 

 so far been pronounced undesirable. The 

 difficulty appears to be that metal or 

 concrete ties are too rigid and unyield- 

 ing and therefore are hard on the loco- 

 motives; that steel ties become brittle 

 and break under the continuous pound- 

 ing of heavy traffic and that concrete 

 ties disintegrate both through the action 



of frost and the continuous pounding of 

 heavy traffic. 



There does not appear to be any sub- 

 stitute for wooden ties which can meet 

 the requirements. The main drawback 

 to the wood crosstie being its non-dur- 

 able quality. The problem is now being 

 solved by the use of inferior species of 

 woods and treating them with some 

 form of chemical preservative which if 

 properly done renders them immune to 

 decay. The preservative treatment of 

 a large number of species which could 

 not be used untreated has opened up a 

 large source of supply hitherto inaccess- 

 ible and is going a large way towards 

 solving the problem for the railway 

 transportation companies of the 

 country. 



The lumber industry has not been so 

 fortunate in holding the railroad trade 

 in large timbers for bridge construction, 

 since steel has largely replaced wood in 

 large structures and concrete in the 

 smaller ones. This can not be regarded 

 as a serious calamity, however, at least 

 from the public point of view since a 

 steel or concrete structure if properly 

 constructed and cared for is more lasting 

 than the ordinary structures of wood, 

 and therefore is to be preferred for 

 this purpose since in the long run it will 

 aid in prolonging the time when the 

 supply of large trees, from which rail- 

 road bridge timbers must be cut, will 

 be exhausted. 



Railroads still consume large quanti- 

 ties of lumber for stations and other 

 buildings although the railroads are 

 coming more and more to construct 

 such buildings of brick or concrete be- 

 cause of the more durable character of 

 the structure. 



The construction of cars for years 

 has required a very large amount of 

 lumber, but today the demands for 

 wood for this purpose are decreasing, 

 due to the increased use of steel for the 

 construction both of passenger and 

 freight cars. The average size box car 

 if constructed of wood requires about 

 6,500 board feet of lumber, and the 

 average size gondola, coke or ore cars, 

 4,000 feet. In 1911 an estimate of the 

 number of cars exclusive of passenger, 

 which were constructed, was about 



