194 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



PENNSYLVANIA FORESTRY. 



[At the recent meeting of the Forest Congress, in Washington City, a paper 

 was read by the Engineer of Maintenance of Way of the Pennsylvania Railway 

 East of Pittsburg, which in part we append.] 



"During the past year the Pennsylvania Railroad Company has had the sub- 

 ject considered and a report made by a committee of our Transportation Associa- 

 tion, and I will draw from this report some data for my remarks of to-day. 



"The number of cross-ties in use on the railroads of the United States is 

 estimated to be about 620,000,000; the number used annually for repairs and for 

 extensions of track is estimated to be from 90,000,000 to 1 10,000.000 requiring, we 

 may say, the entire product of 200,000 acres of woodland annually. 



"Each year the timber from which these are manufactured is farther from the 

 base of transportation ; many of the former sources of supply have already 

 been entirely exhausted. Our Pennsylvania railroads now look chiefly to inland 

 Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky for our white oak ties, and the long-leaf 

 yellow pine of the Southern States will soon disappear; probably another decade 

 may nearly close these sources of supply. 



"The annual consumption of ties on the Pennsylvania Railroad system cast 

 of Pittsburg and Erie, for repairs only, is about 3,000,000, the latter being about 

 the average quantity used every year for repairs in the past ten years. To this 

 should be added, say, 500,000 used annually for new work. 



"It is evident, therefore, that, at the present rate of consumption the available 

 supply of the present timbers used,. especially white oak and yellow pine, will be 

 exhausted to a serious degree before many years, and the time is now ripe for the 

 railroads to consider the question of what course they are to pursue in the 

 future. 



"Under these conditions there are obviously two courses: 



"First The reduction of the amount consumed, which can be clone by the 

 substitution of other material for wood, and by the use of preservative methods 

 for prolonging the life of ties, and which, by increasing its durability, will diminish 

 the annual requirements for renewals, and. 



"Second P>y the adoption of forestry methods, having for its purposes the 

 proper care and management of the forests still remaining, and the cultivation 

 of new tree plantations. 



"It is to the latter to which I will chiefly confine my remarks in connection 

 with this all-important subject. 



"The necessity or advisability of a railroad taking an active part in forestry 



