20 
The consuvnption of wood for’ railway ties alone is by no means 
inconsiderable. The total number of miles of railways in the United 
States, exclusive of switches and side tracks, as stated in Pool’s Table, 
in the Wisconsin Railroad Commissioner’s Report, 1875, ^^te 72,623 
miles, and taking the estimate of Mr. D. J. Whittemore, Chief Engineer 
of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, that the number of ties, 
facing six to eight inches, required per mile is 3,000, and the average 
durability of ties to be seven years, it would require an aggregate of 
217,869,000 ties once in seven years to supply the railways in opera- 
tion at the date of the Railroad Commissioner’s Report, or an average 
annual consumption of 31,124,142. 
In estimating the area of land necessary to be planted to Larch 
trees, to meet the requirements of railways in operation in i 875 > 
ties, it is assumed that 3,000 plants per acre are needed to make the 
planting, and that a series of systematic thinnings of the trees is 
adopted, for stakes, hop poles, fence posts telegraph poles and fuel, 
reduces the number of trees to 800 per acre, and the expiration of 35 
years from the date of planting, and that 400 of these trees can be cut 
for ties without detriment to the remaining trees— which may be left 
to grow for piles, dimension timbers and ship building— and estimat- 
ing the trees which are to cut for ties, to average two ties per tree, it 
would require a series of seven years’ planting of 272,336;^; acres, 
or without allowances for casualties, an aggregate planting of 
1,906,353 acres in a period of 35 years. 
The number of posts required to fence the railways and the im- 
proved farms, supposing the latter are subdivided into farms of forty 
acres — offsetting the posts used for fencing city and village lots against 
the hedge and stone fences, and improved lands not fenced — and the 
poles for telegraph lines and hop yards in the United States, based, 
upon the census returns of 1870, and the estimates of Chas. H. Has 
kins. General Superintendent Northwestern Telegraph Company, and 
hop dealers, may be seen at a glance, by referring to the following 
table : 
Railways, No. of Ties 217,869,000 at 80.50 Value, 8108,934,500 00 
II “ Posts 87,728,540 at 20 “ 17,545,708 00 
Farms, “ “ 3°>227.37i.36o at 20 “ 6,045,474,272 00 
Telegraph Lines, No. of Poles,.. 2,725,000 at 1.50 “ 5,087,500 00 
Hop Yards, “ “ •. 6,400,000 at 25 “ 1,600,00000 
If the life of the ties is seven years, and the posts and the polp 
i6 years, the yearly consumption of wood for the uses specified in 
the table amounts to 8379,556,71 7-5°- The foregoing estimate does 
not include the total consumption of wood for other purposes to 
which the wood of the Larch is suited, but enough facts are shown 
upon which to base estimates to show that plantations of the Larch, 
if made now, will prove much more remunerative for a series of years 
than ordinary farm crops. 
If the thinnings of a Larch plantation be commenced at seven to 
ten years from the date of planting, and are continued in a systematic 
manner for thirty-five years, and the number of trees are reduced to 
800 per acre, there can be no question but what the yield of wood 
