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cant one. The trouble is to find a good process and to get it thoroughly 

 carried out. Different species of timber and different pieces of the same 

 timber absorb different quantities of the preservative, thus producing 

 an undesirable want of uniformity. This is specially troublesome in the 

 case of ties, some ties lasting for years and others having to be replaced 

 in a short time, which means considerable expense for maintenance 

 of the track. In England, where the creosotiug process is generally 

 adopted for ties, some railway companies have their own plant and 

 creosote their own ties, sometimes also sawiug their own ties from logs 

 delivered by contract. Some of these plants were described in my 

 paper on ''English Eailway Track," read at the annual convention of 

 the American Society of Civil Engineers at Milwaukee, Wis., in June, 

 1888. Too little practical attention has been given to this question, 

 though it seems as if some slow progress was being made. Creosoting 

 is very generally used in England and is very successful, but the kind 

 of creosote used is more expensive in this country. Some very valua- 

 ble and useful information on this subject is contained in the report of 

 the committee on the preservation of timber, American Society of Civil 

 Engineers, June, 1885, and in Bulletin No. 1 of the Forestry Division 

 for 1887. 



4. By the introduction of metal cross ties. — This subject, one of the 

 most important in railway matters, from the point of view of the econ- 

 omy and efficiency of the track for operation and maintenance as well 

 as from that of economy in timber, is not given much practical atten- 

 tion in this country. Comparatively little is known in detail of what 

 has been done and is being done in other parts of the world, though it 

 is usually understood that quite a number of experiments have been 

 made in foreign countries. Experiments certainly have been made and 

 are still being made, but the matter, on the whole, is beyond the experi- 

 mental' stage, and metal ties have been regularly adopted on hundreds 

 of miles of track, with most satisfactory results. The reason why the 

 matter has been so neglected in this country, may probably be found in 

 the undeniable cheapness of so many of our railways ; the fact being 

 frequently overlooked that cheapness is expensive, and that what is 

 saved in construction is paid out over and over again in maintenance 

 and expenses. By this it is not meant to suggest that every road 

 should at once put down metal ties, because there are many cases in 

 which this would be inexpedient if not impracticable, since many West- 

 ern roads must of necessity be built at as low a rate of first cost as pos- 

 sible ; and as the construction of these roads (I refer here only to legiti- 

 mate enter]3rises) is absolutely necessary for the development of cer- 

 tain districts, for the benefit of those districts, and incidentally for the 

 benefit of the country at large, there are cases in which, for the present 

 at least, wooden ties may be used and their use put under the head of 

 " legitimate consumption." But there are other classes of railways : 

 there are the roads which, having been cheaply built in the first place, 



