HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 409 
Mz. Prics. Yes, sir. 
Mr Bowrr. What is the cost of the treatment on a tie that would 
increase the life of a tie three or four years? 
Mr. Price. That I could give you only roughly. Some species are 
harder to impregnate than others. Probably 15 or 20 cents a tie. 
Mr. Bowrs. That is a good deal less than the first cost of the tic? 
Mr. Price. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Bowie. And it makes one tie equal to three or four? 
_ Mr. Price. Three or four.. And then it also does away with the 
expense incident to changing ties in the track. 
Mr. Bowrsz. A large part of the expense? 
Mr. Pricer. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Bowiz. Why is not that of sufficient importance to justify the 
railroads in doing that work themselves? Why does the Government 
have to do that? 
Mr. Price. Because it hastens matters. The railroads probably 
would come to preserving ties when the urgent necessity drove them 
to it, but not until then. If we can lead them to do it sooner we will 
save the forests that much more. It all goes back to the question of 
oe preservation. The longer the ties last the longer the forests 
will last. 
Mr. Bowir. I can understand why it takes a good deal of time to 
explain to a man who owns 640 or 160 acres of land the necessity for 
this, and how it takes time to scatter that information among several 
million farmers; but it seems to me that a self-evident proposition 
of that sort ought to be acted upon by the railroad managements in a 
great deal less time. 
Mr. Pricr. They have not gone into it simply because neither the 
need nor the way had been brought home to-them. 
Mr. Bowig. Has the Southern Railroad taken it up? 
Mr. Price. It is the Santa Fe road I have spoken of. 
Mr. Bowrsr. That is the Western? 
Mr. Pricxz. In the Southwest. 
Mr. Bowrs. Has the Louisville and Nashville, or the Southern 
Railroad ? 
Mr. Price. No, sir; but I. believe the Southern Road is consider- 
ing it. 
‘Ur. Bowir. Has the matter been presented to them? 
Mr. Prics. It has, I believe, been discussed between the Southern 
Railroad and our representatives. Of course the problem is not so 
serious for them as it is for the western roads, since they run through 
a forested country. 
Mr. Bowtrg. It is merely a question of economy ? 
Mr. Price. Yes, and not nearly so urgent for them as it is for the 
roads in the West, where timber is scarce. oo 
Mr. Lams. Have we not got large quantities of hard wood in our 
colonial possessions ? : 
Mr. Price. As 1 understand from Mr. Pinchot and Captain Ahern 
the difficulty of getting that out is great. 
Mr. Bowrsr. They have no roads there? ; 
Mr. Price. No, sir; and logging operations are difficult. 
Mr. Lams. I thought that they had a lot of hard woods over there. 
Mr. Henry. Have you one of your experts in Porto Rico? 
Mr. Price. We had a man there this summer making an investiga- 
