72 



have built up the district they serve and are being improved to meet 

 the requirements of increased traffic — on many of these roads metal 

 ties might be laid to advantage ; then there are the wealthy trunk lines, 

 which instead of consuming great quantities of wooden ties every year 

 for maintenance and renewals, should gradually introduce metal ties 

 on their tracks 5 and finally there are the new roads in busy parts of 

 the countrj^, which are built in a first-class manner to accommodate a 

 heavy traffic from the beginning— these lines should be laid with a metal 

 track in the first place. 



In these four ways the railway systems of the country might aid 

 greatly in economizing the i3resent supply of timber, but, in addition, 

 they might help to restore the forests by establishing plantations and 

 encouraging forestry. This has been done to a small extent, but the 

 length of time necessary for the growth of a '^ crop" is a hinderance to 

 any movement of this kind. In Pennsylvania, railways already have 

 to go outside the State for their oak ties, and the mining industries in 

 the once heavily timbered coal regions of the same State have to import 

 the proiis, etc., for the workiogs. In Europe, steel is coming into ex- 

 tensive use for mines, both for x^rops and beams, and for ties. 



Some idea of the consumption of timber by railways mav be gathered 

 from the following particulars, which are abstracted from a Keport on 

 the Forest Condition of the Eocky Mountains (Department of Agricult- 

 ure, Forestry Division, Bulletin No. 2), by Col. E. T. Ensign, forest 

 commissioner of Colorado : 



Union Pacific Railway. — During 1886 there were used iu Idalio, Montana, Wyoming, 

 and Colorado, 686,827 ties and 8,450,969 square feet of dimension timber. 



Denver and Bio Grande Bailway. — The following native timber was used in Colorado 

 and New Mexico in 1886 : 60,000 broad-gauge ties, 740,000 narrow-gauge ties, 3,000,000 

 feet, B. M., of dimension lumber. The approximate amount of timber required for an- 

 nual renewals and repairs was 1,023,376 ties, and 5,625,000 feet, B. M., of sawed timber. 



Colorado Midland Bailumy. — The number of ties for the construction of 250 miles of 

 main track and the sidings, was estimated at 900,000, and the number of feet of tim- 

 ber for bridges and other construction work at between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000. 



Atlantic and Pacific Bailway. — During 1885 the consumption of native pine was 

 937,240 feet in New Mexico, and 2,028,959 feet, B. M., in Arizona. In 1886, 47,456 ties 

 of native pine and 298,755 feet of native pine dimension lumber were used in New 

 Mexico. 



Another form of timber destruction, and one for which the railways 

 are largely responsible, is that of fires 5 on many lines through tracts 

 of timber there is abundant evidence of this fact in strips of charred 

 stumps and logs along the track, sometimes spreading off into large 

 patches. The spark arresters on many locomotives, especially on lines 

 of minor importance, are very inefficient, and on some little lines in 

 New England over which I have traveled, the wood-burning engines, 

 although fitted with spark arresters, throw out continuous showers of 

 sparks. Some interesting notes in respect to forest fires may be gath- 

 ered from the reviews of the forestry interest in each State and Terri- 

 tory — given in the annual report of the Division of Forestry for 1887, 



