THREE THOUSAND A MILE 11 



in the woods. The hewing of ties is all individual 

 work, one man being capable of making from fifteen 

 to thirty-five ties a day. Very large trees cannot be 

 economically handled in this way, those from ten to 

 seventeen inches in diameter being preferable, but 

 even then from twenty-five to seventy-five per cent, 

 of the wood is lost in chips and split pieces. It is less 

 wasteful to cut ties in a sawmill in the same manner 

 as that in which other large timbers are manufac- 

 tured, and indeed many railroads are beginning to 

 appreciate the advantages thus gained. Sawed ties 

 will also pile better, are less prodigal of preserva- 

 tive material, and offer a more uniform bearing for 

 rails and tie plates. The advocates of hewn ties, 

 however, claim that the conformity to the grain of 

 the wood obtained by hewing renders this type of 

 tie both stronger and more resistive to decay, and 

 up to the present time the hewers appear to have 

 had the best of the argument. 



The price of all wood ties has increased so 

 rapidly within the last few years that the railroads 

 have been searching for a more economical substi- 

 tute. In Germany cross-ties made of concrete and 

 steel have proved extremely effective and given con- 

 siderably longer service than wood. Our engineers, 

 however, have found that while concrete and steel 

 ties last very well under the lighter trains of 



