The following is a brief abstract of a paper read by Dr. Franklin B. Hough,
of Lowville, N. Y., before the American Forestry Congress:

We have now about 100,000 miles of railroads in the United States. Allow-
ing nothing for increase, but making estimates on the present lines, in the
mutter of ties, the figures would run something as follows: The number of
ties per mile ranges from 2,200 to 3,000, and in some cases as high as 3,500.
If we assume that they average 2,500 to the mile, we have a quarter of a billion
in use. They average eight feet in length, and about seven inches deep and
eight wide, giving the contents about three cubic feet apiece, or in all six
millions of cords. If piled cord fashion, they would form a pile four feet high,
eight feet wide and 4,575 miles long. Placed end to end they would span the
earth fifteen times at the equator, or in one line would reach miles beyond the
moon. We may take their average life at from five to eight years, and we
shall need from 30,000,000 to 50,000,000 new ties a year for maintaining the
present railroads of the country in constant use.
The number of ties that can be cut from an acre of wood land varies exceed-
ingly, but, at 500 to the acre, we shall need to cut over from 60,000 to 100,000
acres every year, to meet this demand.
It probably is not out of the way to say that trees will grow from seed to
size sufficient for ties in thirty years; then we shall need from nearly two
millions to over three millions of acres, or from 3,126 to 4,687 square miles of
forest to keep up this supply.
