19 



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 onl}^, by all the railroads 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 re- 

 membered that about 200 ties is the average yield per acre of forest, 

 varying very greatly in different localities ; so that to supply this sin- 

 gle 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 railroads. There are bridge timbers, fence 

 posts, telegraph poles, car materials, and building timbers of all kinds, 

 all of which it is estimated will nearly equal in board measure the 

 cross-tie item, so that it is probable that the railroads of the United 

 States for all purposes require annually, under present practices, the 

 entire product of almost 1,000,000 acres of the forest. * * * If the 

 American railroads are to continue to be the eiFicient commercial tool 

 that they now are, to continue the very low average rates and the high 

 scale of wages now in effect, the question of the increased cost of ties 

 and timber is of greater and greater importance to those who pay 

 transportation charges, to wage-earners, and to railroad owners. The 

 fact that so many large interests are dependent upon the wise han- 

 dling of the forests remaining in this country will insure a greater 

 cooperation in the future than there has been in the past between 

 those Avho cut down and use the forests for money-making purposes 

 and those who are studying the subject in order to safeguard the 

 interests of those who come after us. 



JAMES J. HILL, 



President Great Northern Railway Company. 



[Extract from a letter to the President of the Congress.] 



I very much regret my inability to be present at the Forest Con- 

 gress. The subject is of im]3ortance far beyond the general under- 

 standing of the public. The growth of population in the United 

 States has practically co^'ered all the land which can be cultivated 

 with a profit without artificial moisture. Irrigation and forestry 

 are the two subjects which are to have a greater effect upon the future 

 prosperity of the United States than any other public question, either 

 within or without Congress. 



CHARLES F. MANDERSON, 



General Solicitor Cliicag-o, Burlington and Q,uincy Railway Company. 



* * * A future timber supply demands not only the preserva- 

 tion b}^ judicious forestry and intelligent lumbering the store we have, 



