THE CULTIVATED FORESTS OF EUROPE. 1 87 



over, $118; 21 to 24 inches, $86.80; 18 to 21 inches, $69.44; 14 to 18 inches, 

 $52.08; 10 to 14 inches, $34.72; 8 to 10 inches, $21.70. 



Beech was quoted as follows: Logs with middle diameter 24 inches and over, 

 $35.60 per 1,000 feet, board measure; 21 to 24 inches, $30.38; 18 to 21 inches, 

 $21.70; 14 to 18 inches, $13.90; 10 to 14 inches, $10.42; 8 to 10 inches, $9.55.* 



The live market for wood appears also in the number of metal ties one sees 

 in the railroads of Europe. In Germany they are used in one fifth of the entire 

 mileage. The use of wooden ties has, however, in recent years been greatly 

 encouraged by the discovery of methods of impregnating wood with one of the 

 following substances: creosote, chloride of zinc, sulphate of copper, corrosive 

 sublimate, or a mixture of the salts of iron and copper, by which the durability 

 of the wood is greatly increased. A beech tie, which ordinarly lasts about five 

 years, may thus be made to last twenty years. The life of an oak tie is 

 increased from fifteen to thirty years, a pine from six to twenty-four. A beech 

 tie 8 feet 10 inches long, 6.4 inches high, 10.4 inches wide, Avith 6.4 inches top 

 measure, costs, laid at the works, about $1.06; an oak tie of the same dimen- 

 sions, $1.63; a pine tie, $1.12. Impregnating with creosote costs, respectively, 

 about 65 cents, 30 cents and 25 cents. 



Tf)e Distribution of Population. 



The distribution of the large population facilitates very much the removal of 

 the forest products. The woodland districts are quite thickly peopled. Even 

 in the Black Forest there are a great many villages and summer resorts, their 

 population in the aggregate exceeding 1,000,000 people. If the Adirondack lakes 

 were drained of water and their beds occupied by farms and villages the landscape 

 would be quite similar to that of the forested regions of middle Europe. Thus 

 the market is close at hand, at least for the small material, permitting its more 

 extensive use. 



Tl)e l5ov Wages. 



With a large population everywhere close by, not only is the market better, 

 but labor is more available, and at a lower price. Compared with the price of 

 wood, wages in Europe are very low. Men in the woods are paid about sixty 

 cents a day. Much of the work, however, is done by women and boys, the former 

 receiving forty cents, the latter twenty-five cents, for a day of twelve hours. 



*In the Adirondacks spruce is worth on the stump about four dollars, and beech about two 

 dollars per 1,000 feet. In New York oak is worth about fourteen dollars per 1,000 feet. 



