FOBEST PKESERVATION AND NATIONAL PKOSPERITY. 17 



* * * As yet no substitute has been devised for wood ties that is 

 either economical or desirable. They maintain the alignment of the 

 railroad, so essential to safety, better than any metal substitute, and 

 give an elasticity to the roadbed most important for the preservation 

 and maintenance of the rolling stock. With metal ties, or a stone 

 base, the rails would be speedily injured, and the heavy Mogul en- 

 gines used to-day, drawing the heavy trains of large cars needed for 

 the traffic, would pound themselves quickly into decrepitude and 

 uselessness. 



J. T. EICHASDS, 



Chief Engineer, Maintenance of "Way, Pennsylvania Railroad System. 



During the past } T ear the Pennsylvania Railroad Company has had 

 the subject of tie supplies considered by a committee of our transpor- 

 tation association. The number of cross-ties in use on the railroads 

 of the United States is estimated to be 620 millions ; the number used 

 annually for repairs and for extension of track is estimated to be 

 from 90 to 110 millions. Each } 7 ear the timber from which these are 

 manufactured is farther from the base of transportation. Many of 

 the former sources of supply have already been entirely exhausted. 

 Our Pennsylvania railroads now look chiefly to inland Virginia, West 

 Virginia, and Kentucky for our white oak ties, and the longleaf yel- 

 low pine of the Southern States will soon disappear. Probably 

 another decade may nearly close these sources of supply. The time 

 is now ripe for the railroads to consider the question of what course 

 they are to pursue in the future. 



* * * As long as twenty-four or twenty-five years ago, on the 

 Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg, attention was given to the sub- 

 ject, and a number of catalpa trees were planted near the right of 

 way of one of its lines, but the results obtained were unsatisfactory. 

 More recently the yellow locust, as a tie timber, has been brought to 

 our attention, and the cultivation of this tree to a limited extent for 

 tie purposes has been undertaken. Within the last two years we have 

 begun the planting of j^ellow locust trees on an extensive scale on 

 property owned by the company. The total quantity planted to date 

 is 280,530 trees. During the coming year we expect to plant about 

 800,000 more. 



MINING IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT FORESTS. 



T. J. GEIER, 



Superintendent iEomestake Mining Company. 



Forests are important to mining, and benefits accrue to mining 

 from forests, but it is not sufficient to say so and there stop. The 

 forests are an absolute necessity to the mines. Nor is it true to say 



