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most lasting timber. Railway companies use, therefore, the best timber 
obtainable within a reasonable distance from their lines. 
In consequence certain pre-eminently valuable kinds are required in 
the greatest quantities, and adding to this the general preference given 
to young and thrifty timber, possessing the greatest toughness and elas- 
ticity, it can be readily seen that the time may not be far distant when 
the wonted supply of those kinds will become exhausted. Many mill- 
ions of young trees of the White Oak tribe are cut aunually, each of 
which make but one tic. When one locality is exhausted, this scene of 
slaughter of the most valuable young timber is simply shifted to an- 
other. The careful selection of the best material makes the waste 
throughout necessarily large. 
Telegraph poles, required to be straight, smooth, and lasting, are 
made of Chestnut and Eed and White Cedar timber, which abounds 
principally in the Northeastern and Atlantic States. Tennessee, Ar- 
kansas, and Texas likewise, furnish large quantities of this material. 
Preference is given, however, to Cedar poles grown on the barren up- 
lands rather than to those grown on the sandy lowlands of the South- 
ern States. 
"Dimension"' timber for bridge construction, lumber for stations, 
and material for car-building naturally belong to the lumber trade and 
command the ruling prices obtaining in that industry. It is noteworthy 
in this connection that, while prices are on the ascendency in the latter, 
the value of ties is comparatively stationary, lower even to-day in cer- 
tain sections than ten or fifteen years ago. 
Adequacy of supply. — Eailways built through timbered districts en- 
counter little difficulty in procuring the needed supply of construction 
timber, in the selection of which they have had an almost unlimited 
choice. The abundance and cheapness of wood has exercised a great 
influence in the shaping of the modes of construction in vogue in a 
country in which for several generations past the inhabitants have 
been busily engaged in clearing the land of the timber. Are we to 
wonder at the accounts of proverbial waste in the earlier days of the 
country, a popular policy simply unavoidable under circumstances con- 
trolling those pioneer periods % But would it be wise to cling to the 
traditions of the past, refusing to judge impartially the necessities of 
the future, in w^hich the demands for forest products will ever be oh 
the increase ? 
The agencies employed in supplying the enormous quantities of ties 
required by the railway system determine, to a great extent, the amount 
and price of material offered in the market. In many parts of the 
country the cutting and hauling of ties to railway stations is performed 
mostly by the farmers, to whom this labor is a source of ready cash and 
employment of spare time. Owing to this mode of supply an abun- 
dance of material is steadily offered, giving railways full control in the 
selection of the best quality and in the price paid, while by a regula- 
