14 
GEOGRAPHICAL RELATION OF RAILROADS 
TO THE FOREST AREA. 
AYith the railway map of to-day before us, a brief consideration may 
properly be given to the physical characteristics of the country in refer- 
ence to the distribution of the forests, from which the most indispens- 
able material of construction has to be drawn. The vast area of country 
lying east of the Kocky Mountains presents the two opposite extremes 
of forest and treeless plain. 
The States bordering on the Atlantic coast from north to south, to- 
gether with the interior and Middle States, are forest territory, in which 
settlement and civilization could gain a foothold only by the use of the 
ax. The forest extended from the Northern Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, 
but midway in the Mississippi Valley was met by the treeless prairie. 
The change, however, was not abrupt, but gradual, both forest and 
prairie dovetailing deeply into each other. The middle ground, extend- 
ing from Minnesota to Texas, is a territory peculiarly favored by the 
hand of nature, possessing the fertility and ease of culture of a prairie, 
together with an abundance of timber and protection from the inclem- 
encies of the climate of the plains of the West, on which trees flourish 
only along the water-courses. 
On the Pacific slope the greatest forest area is again found in the 
North, extending in many ramifications through the. mountain ranges. 
The area of treeless territory, however, is equally large, especially in 
the southern half of this section. 
At the time when the railways were undertaken, it is evident that an 
abundance of material for construction existed throughout the timbered 
district, and that no real value was placed on the material, which, 
though indispensable, was everywhere encumbering the ground. In 
the construction of roads over widely-extended treeless plains, the sup- 
ply had of necessity to be brought from great distances at a correspond- 
ing cost. 
Considering the stupendous amounts of timber already withdrawn 
from native forests, the annual demands of railways now in operation, 
and the increase of mileage from year to year, it becomes necessary to 
take a more accurate survey of the fields of demand and supply, un- 
biased by the popular delusion of the inexhaustible forest wealth of 
America. This necessity is no longer either to be ignored or lightly 
treated as in the past. 
DEMANDS OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM. 
For construction. — Assuming 187,500 miles of track * in the United 
States, and taking 2,640 ties for each mile, the number of ties in use 
would be 495,000,000, each tie containing an average of 3 cubic feet ; 
* In considering the relation of the railways to the forests, it is important to bear 
in mind the distinction between the length of road and the length of track. These 
often differ greatly from each other. For example, the length of the New York 
