34 Indian Forest Records. _ [Vol. VX 
perished. The tendency of these sleepers to crack, especially when 
exposed to the sun, has already been noted in previous reports. 
“Fastenings -—I do not find that the fastenings are excessively cor¬ 
roded as compared with those in contact with untreated sleepers.” 
The record of another experiment v T ith Powellized sleepers is available- 
from the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway. In July 1911 
this railway laid down in the Broach District, a locality notorious for 
white-ants, the following Powellized sleepers for trial :— 
9 pieces of Chloroxylon Swietenia 
5 ,, of Terminalia tomentosa. 
4 ,, of Odina Wodier. 
7 ,, of Powtik (Singapore Sarayah). 
In August 1915, the Executive Engineer reported that 1:4 the sleepers 
“were all sound, except those marked T. T., which had developed fine 
(S cracks. None of them, however, had been attacked by white-ants,” 
Of the above timbers, the first two would last untreated more than four 
years, while Odina Wodier would certainly not last as long as that in an 
untreated state. As to the durability of untreated Sarayah timber,, 
nothing is lmowm further than that n an untreated state it is net 
durable when used as sleepers. 
(vii) General conclusions based on the results of excer t ments 
with Powellized timber, 
Tc form a correct estimate of the value o^the Powell process, from 
the results of the above described experiments it is of importance to 
differentiate between the rejections due t- r * mechanical defects in the 
timber and rejections due to deterioration of the fibre or attack by white- 
ants, In the case of the laboratory experiments, in wh»ch the specimens 
were laid down in three batches, all those which failed of the fi-'^t two- 
batches w r ere rejected owing to white-ant attack, while some of these 
of the third batch were rejected due to a combination of dry ret and 
white-ant attack, and the rest to white-ant attack only. The cause 
of this is ascribed to faulty treatment due to early inexperience. The 
reason why white-ants attacked the treated soft-wood specimens is 
attributed to the fact that the arsenic has, in course of time, been washed 
out of the timber. 
Turning to the field experiments, the results of those carried out 
according to the Forest Research Institute Scheme have to date giveu 
satisfactory results as, with the exception of a few soft-wood sleepers laid 
down in Burma and on the Eastern Bengal Railway, none have been 
damaged by white-ants. The only note of warning comes from the 
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