TACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



419 



While it is impracticable to saw the locust into lumber, and even to saw it into 

 shapely fence posts, yet an expert axman may work up a large tree into eight- 

 foot posts without difficulty or material loss. 



This quality of straightness of grain combined with hardness tend to cause 

 splitting when spikes are driven into the wood, and when the wood shrinks in sea- 

 soning. Every farmer who has used locust posts knows from experience that it 

 is impossible to draw a nail from locust after the timber has seasoned, while man- 

 ufacturers of nails and staples are obliged to make specially thick, short and heavy 

 nails and wire staples where locust posts are to be used ; so dense is the wood ordi- 

 nary nails and staples will bend and double up but cannot be driven into the wood. 



A LOCUST CROVK. SPRINGVILLE, UTAH 



XOT FOR RAILWAY CROSS-TIES. 



It is possible to bore the wood before driving spikes, and thus enable the 

 fastening to enter the wood, but here again, with a square iron spike forced into a 

 roun'l hole, the tendency to split as the wedge enters the wood is very great. 



If it is safely secured without splitting, then, in case of accident to a train 

 or from any necessity for changing the track, the spike must be cut or broken 

 off, since it cannot be withdrawn. 



Practical engineers will recognize this feature when great haste is often re- 

 quired in building a track around a wreck, or, in fact, in any railway operation. 



