17 
track, together w ith one- tenth of the timber uxvd in bridges, trestles, 
and pilings, and of telegraph poles in use along railroads, giving the 
following figures : 
Cubic feet. 
70,714,286 tics (at 3 cubic feet each), equal 212, 142, 8.~8 
Bridge and trestle timber 37, 500,000 
telegraph poles, 500,000 5, 000, 000 
Total demand for maintenance '254,642,858 
To this must be added the amount of material required for the con- 
struction of new roads, assumed above at 5,000 miles annually, being: 
Cubic feet. 
13,200, 000 tics 39,600,000 
Bridge and trestle timber , 10, 000, 000 
150,000 telegraph poles 1, 500, 000 
Total 51,100,000 
Demands for maiutenanco 254,642,858 
Demands for new construction 51, 100, 000 
Total 305, 712, 858 
which may safely be considered as equal to 509,521,430 cubic feet of 
round timber. 
This amount of timber, required for the specific purposes mentioned 
above, is cut principally in those sections of the wooded area of the 
United States where the kinds of trees demanded are most abundant, 
and where facilities for transportation encourage their felling. Heavily 
wooded districts, remote from existing lines of communication, have 
thus far escaped the attack of the relentless woodman's ax, and form 
a reserve for future years, when new railway lines will extend into the 
dark shades of these forests to carry off the timber wealth still re- 
maining in many sections of the land. In many of the older and more 
populous States of the Union the forests are already thin and. meager, 
and many tracts reported as forest lands are simply wastes of brush 
and fire -wood. 
Amidst the endless diversity in the location of forests and the preva- 
lence of various kinds of timber, it is impossible to estimate with ac- 
curacy the area necessary for the production from year to year of the 
great amount of timber required by the railways. Estimates, to be 
worth more than guesses, must be based on established data, which 
unfortunately are but few in the forestry practice of the United States. 
The number of ties obtainable from an acre of forest land is very 
variable. The same is true of the yield of timber on pine and cypress 
lands, from which are mainly derived the timbers of large dimensions 
for bridge construction. Trees suitable for telegraph poles are indigen- 
ous only in certain few regions, but the number of poles cut on many 
an acre is quite often very large. 
Assuming an average yield of 300 ties per acre, 70,714,280 ties, the 
number demanded annually for maiuteuauce of the present mileage of 
217" 3- Bull. No. 1—2 
