American Forest Congress 5 id 



at an average rate of three-fourths of a cent per ton 

 per mile, far lower than the rates in any other country 

 in the world ; and they do this with wages far higher 

 than in any other country in the world, and with a 

 general service far better than that given by any other 

 nation. 



An absolutely essential part of a modern railroad is 

 a safe, strong, and good track, and these figures about 

 railroads are given simply to show the magnitude of 

 that business in investment, in wages, in work done, 

 and in the price paid therefor. Anything that tends 

 to make the maintenance and operation of this great 

 commercial tool more expensive must be offset either 

 by a decrease in wages, by an increase in rates, by a 

 decrease in efficiency, by a decrease in returns to own- 

 ers, or by all combined. 



To have good track the railroads must have some 

 form of support under the rails, and the present prac- 

 tice is a wooden tie. In this item alone, based upon 

 the actual requirements for a period of years by one 

 large system, it is estimated that the total annual con- 

 sumption of ties, for renewals only, in all of the rail- 

 roads of the United States, is at least 100,000,000, to 

 which add 20,000,000 for additional tracks and yards, 

 and for the construction of new railroads, and the total 

 is the equivalent in board measure of more than 4,000,- 

 000,000 feet. 



The significance of these figures is more apparent 

 when it is remembered that about 200 ties is the aver- 

 age yield per acre of forest, varying very greatly in 

 different localities; so that to supply this single item 

 necessitates the denudation annually of over one-half 

 million acres of forest. But the cross tie supply is 

 only one of the forest products required by the rail- 

 roads. There are bridge timbers, fence posts, tele- 



