4 BULLETIN" 549, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



49,670 miles of railroads. The mileage of the reporting railroads 

 was 35,830 miles, or 72 per cent of the total mileage of the region. 



The western region, which is the largest, is the remainder of the 

 United States and has a total of 141,936 miles of railroads. The 

 mileage of the reporting railroads is 122,432 miles, or 86 per cent of 

 the total of the region. 



White oak is the predominating wood in all regions. It is very 

 evenly distributed throughout them all; and the southern and eastern 

 regions reported practically the same quantities. Practically all of 

 the red-oak ties were reported in the western and eastern regions, the 

 southern region reporting only 512,054. Southern pine is rather 

 evenly distributed through all the different regions. 



Oak, Douglas fir, and southern pine meet the greater part of the 

 demand in the western region, although cypress, cedar, tamarack, 

 western yellow pine, and lodgepole pine are well represented. 



The eastern region draws largely upon oak, southern pine, cedar, 

 and chestnut for its crossties. These four species supplied 27,681 ,334, 

 or 92 per cent of the total number of ties purchased in this region. 

 Douglas fir was purchased in small quantities, the total being 2,491 

 ties. 



In the southern region, white oak, southern pine, and cypress con- 

 tributed 16,096,815 ties, or 90 per cent of the total purchased in the 

 region. There were reported 432 hemlock crossties and only 27 

 cedar ties. Beech and maple were reported in nearly equal quantities. 



Table 3. — Number of crossties reported purchased in 1915 by steam railroads, representing 

 78.46 per cent of total mileage, by regions and kinds of wood. 



Kind of wood. 



All kinds 



White oak 



Red oak 



Southern pine 



Douglas fir 



C3-press 



Cedar 



Chestnut 



Eastern tamarack. . . 



Lodgepole pine 



Western larch 



Western yellow pine 



Beech 



Maple 



Hemlock 



Gum 



JJirch 



Redwood 



All other 



Total. 



83, 493, 655 



160,316 

 939, 605 

 226, 654 

 303, 685 

 375,012 

 121,570 

 666, 402 

 520, 475 

 254, 420 

 196,415 

 183, 535 

 139, 457 

 062, 086 

 839, 924 

 485, 466 

 462,462 

 270, 694 

 235, 477 



Western 

 region. 



40, 650, 424 



11,227,462 



5,630,237 



4,692,350 



6, 306, 194 



2,467,158 



2,004,822 



96, 443 



2, 408, 642 



1, 254, 420 



1,196,415 



1, 145, 371 



118,363 



111,400 



811,822 



275, 741 



194, 801 



270, 694 



338, 089 



Eastern 

 region. 



30,007,5S3 



9,336,366 



9,797,314 



3,922,080 



2,491 



19, 751 



2,116,721 



2,503,853 



111,833 



3,364 



648, 774 

 578,373 

 27, 670 

 208, 550 

 267, 661 



457, 782 



Southern 

 region. 



17,840,648 



9,596,488 



512,054 



4,612,224 



1,888,103 



27 



61, 103 



34, 800 



372,320 



372,313 



432 



1,175 



389, 606 



Table 4 indicates the number of crossties purchased by the various 

 classes of railroads. Class I roads are those whose annual operating 

 rrvonues are over $1,000,000; Class II, from $100,000 to $1,000,000; 

 and Class III, under $100,000. The railroads in Class I represent 

 183,493 miles; those in Class II and Class III represent 9,587 miles 



