96 
" (b) To contract it at a sufficient price to honest and skillful parties, keeping au 
inspector at the works to note the daily working when the magnitude of the order 
will warrant it; or, 
" (c) Contract the work on such terms that the profits shaJi" depend upon the results 
accomplished in preserving the wood against decay. 
" Will it pay? — The question as to whether it will pay to preserve timber against 
decay seems to have been answered very positively in the affirmative in Europe. 
There seems to he, indeed, no longer any question there about it ; preservation is 
looked upon as quite a matter of course, and public works which fail to avail of it are 
alluded to as neglecting an important economy. 
" In this country, preservation of wood (except in an experimental way) has been 
the rare exception, but the time has probably arrived when, in many sections, an 
economy of 20 to 50 per cent, a year can be obtained in the maintenance of timber 
structures and cross-ties by preparing them artificially to resist decay, while in other 
sections timber is still too cheap to warrant spending money to preserve it. 
' ' This depends upon the price. Thus, where a White Oak tie costs 25 cents and lasts 
eight years, if we spend 25 cents in preparing it so that it will last sixteen years, 
we but double the life as well as the cost, and save only the expense of taking the 
old tie out and placing the new tie in the track at the end of the first eight years, 
if the price of the ties in the meanwhile continues the same. 
t( If, however, the Oak tie costs 75 cents, and we can substitute a Hemlock tie, which 
unprepared would last three and a half years, and cost 30 cents, and by preparing it 
extend its life to twelve years, at an additional cost of 25 cents, or even more, we 
then have a notable economy, both in first cost and in duration. 
" In the case of piles, which are cut off by the Teredo in one or two years, as occur s 
in our southern harbors, the case is plain. They must be creosoted, or great waste 
and increased expense will result. In cases where they last eight to ten years, as in 
some northern sections, it will depend partly upon the value of the structure which 
the piles sustain whether it will pay to creosote them or not. 
" In the case of bridges and trestles, much will depend upon the exposure, and the 
cost of maintenauce, as well as upon the proximate exhaustion of suitable timber in 
the vicinity, and upon contemplated permanent renewals ; while in the case of build- 
ings, platforms, floors, &c, the ordinary wear from traffic will also have to be taken 
into account. 
"■ The most important factor will be the exposure (wet or dry) and consequent rate 
of decay. Thus all brewers find it very economical to preserve their floors ; and mills? 
bleacheries, dye-houses, &c, largely resort to artificial preparation of timber because 
of their exposure to slopping of water, and consequent moisture in heated apart- 
ments. 
"The engineers and managers of the several works, therefore, will have to figure 
up for themselves, in view of the local circumstances of their case and the present 
aud prospective price of timber, whether the economy of artificial treatment is suffi- 
ciently attractive to induce them to resort to it. 
'* The great consumers of timber are the railroads, and the managers of such enter- 
prises have to be governed by a good many considerations, both of finance and of ex- 
pediency, besides those of eventual economy. 
Hitherto, aside from the past cheapness of timber, the principal objections to its 
preparation against decay have been the lack of information as to what results could 
be confidently expected, and the conflicting claims of the promoters of various modes 
G f treatment, each of whom represented his process as absolutely the best under all 
circumstances. 
"Railroad managers naturally want to obtain immediate returns. They do not 
like to burden the revenues of the current year for the benefit of future administra. 
tions, and they are with reason jealous of every dollar that goes out now, even if it 
