216 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
TO THE RAILWAY MANAGER. 
You are a busy man; very much depends upon your judgment in the man- 
agement of your company’s affairs. Details multiply! Correspondence pours 
in as rapidly as you can clear your table. The piles of letters disposed of to- 
day are followed by others to-morrow. 
If, when you are crossing the tracks of some railway, and are on danger- 
ous ground, you hear the tinkling of an electric bell which gives the warning 
sound of an approaching train, and see before you the notice, 
STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! 
There is no doubt but vou will at once heed the warning of the safety signal and 
move with caution until you are clear of impending danger. 
The stockholders of vour company have placed you in this responsible posi- 
tion. You are expected to look to their interests in all that pertains to the man- 
agement of the road, to secure its safety and eventually return to them the great- 
est possible income for their investment. 
STOP 
long enough from the dictation of letters and routine affairs of your office 
to consider what your road is going to do for cross-ties a very few years hence; 
of what they will be made: where they will be obtained: what will be their cost; 
how long will they last, and what will be the expense to your company for re- 
newals. 
LOOK 
far ahead and see the forests disappearing from every portion of the land, and 
no adequate effort being made to perpetuate the supply of timber for general con- 
sumption as well as for your company’s use. 
See the vast export of all kinds of lumber and timber, and the demands 
made upon American forests by European and African railways for cross-ties 
and lumber. Estimate, if you will, the vastness of the requirements for electric 
lines as well as for steam railways. 
LISTEN 
to the warning given in time and prepare for the inevitable result which must 
come within a few vears. The train is rapidly approaching—it is nearer than 
you suppose—which brings the last timbers of American forests. Will you heed 
the signal ? 
We are pointing out a remedy which will make a perpetual supply of timber 
and ties possible. 
