16 
necessary to yield the above product may be estimated at 3,100,000,000 
cubic feet. 
Telegraph Poles. — Each mile of railway requiring thirty telegraph 
poles, the total number of poles in use on 137,615 miles of railway at 
the close of 1886 was 4,128,450, and, making due allowance for double 
rows along many sections of road, can be safely estimated at 5,000,000, 
with an average content of 10 cubic feet each, amounting to 50,000,000 
cubic feet of pole timber. 
In consideration of the steady increase of mileage during the last 
decade, it is is safe to anticipate a yearly addition of 5,000 miles of 
track, creating annually an additional demand for 13,200,000 ties, and 
10,000,000 cubic feet of bridge and trestle timber, together with corre- 
sponding amounts of construction timber and telegraph poles. 
To this may appropriately be added a very large amount, incapable 
of exact estimate, used in fencing the roads, together with timber inci- 
dentally employed for track construction. 
The above figures, though they may be in certain points more or less 
exact, give, nevertheless, an approximate idea of the amount of timber 
cut for the construction of the American railway system ; an amount 
obtainable only on a continent supplied more lavishly with forest wealth 
than any other portion of the globe. 
Maintenance. — While no general rule can be laid down as to the last- 
ing quality of timber imbedded under the track and used in bridges 
and trestle-work, subject, as it is, to the endless variety of condi- 
tions of soil and climate in different sections of the country, never- 
theless it may be safely assumed that seven years is the limit of the 
average usefulness of ties of the best kinds of hard-wood and four years 
for those of the soft-woods. 
Bridge and trestle timber and telegraph poles may be assumed to 
last ten years. 
Therefore, the seventh part of 495,000,000 ties, in round numbers 
equal to 70,714,286, is required each year for the maintenance of a safe 
35 feet of clear lumber to make a merchantable tie. Redwood will average about 50 
per centum of clear and suitable wood for ties. When to this is added the percent- 
age of 'culls' that are arbitrarily rejected by the inspectors on behalf of the rail- 
roads at the owner's expense, it will be found that each tie represents about 75 feet 
of good merchantable lumber in the standing timber destroyed for it. Placing the 
market price of the Eedwood lumber at $25 per 1,000 feet, each tie represents fl.87£ 
worth of lumber. In the light of these figures, it conclusively appears that the pres. 
ent ruling rate of Redwood railroad ties (35 cents) is grossly inadequate. The rem- 
edy lies with the owners of the lands from which the ties are cut. If they will com- 
bine, and agree that they will no longer sacrifice their timber and their work as they 
have been doing, but will insist on being paid at least as much approximately as the 
lumber represented by the ties is worth, they can control the situation. It would be 
far better for them to sell their lands at a small profit, and get into some more profit- 
able occupation, than to go on for years, and at the end find themselves without 
either timber or money to compensate them for their wasted endeavors. The rail- 
roads must have the ties, and land-owners are foolish if they do not compel the pay- 
ment of a fair price for them." — B. E. F. 
