158 FIL GENERAL LIC Issued December 4, 1907. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE-Circular 117. GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester. THE PRESERVATIVE TREATMENT OF FENCE POSTS. 16460-Cir. 117-07 By HOWARD F. WEISS, Forest Assistant. ORGANIZATION OF THE FOREST SERVICE. GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester. OVERTON W. PRICE, Associate Forester. P. P. WELLS, Law Officer. HERBERT A. SMITH, Editor. GEORGE B. SUDWORTH, Dendrologist. Operation.-JAMES B. ADAMS, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Maintenance.-HERMON C. METCALF, Chief. Accounts.-GEORGE E. KING, Chief. Organization.-C. S. CHAPMAN, Chief. CLYDE LEAVITT, Assistant Chief. Engineering.-W. E. HERRING, Chief. Silviculture.-WILLIAM T. Cox, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Extension.-SAMUEL N. SPRING, Chief. Silvics.-RAPHAEL ZON, Chief. Management.-E. E. CARTER, Chief. W. G. WEIGLE, Assistant Chief. Grazing.-ALBERT F. POTTER, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Products.-WILLIAM L. HALL, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Wood Preservation.-CARL G. CRAWFORD, Chief. [Cir. 117] (2) THE PRESERVATIVE TREATMENT OF FENCE POSTS. INTRODUCTION. Satisfactory fence posts are each year more difficult to secure. Substitutes, such as reenforced concrete and iron, are probably too costly to compete with wooden posts, and the only solution of the difficulty lies in the use of cheaper woods and in preventing decay by preservative treatment. Statistics do not show the actual consumption of wood for fence posts in the United States. The cut of posts by logging and timber camps in 1900 was given by the Twelfth Census as 8,715,000, valued at $606,000, and in 1906 the Northwestern Cedarmen's Association reported a cut of 15,200,000 cedar posts in the Lake States, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Neither of these estimates, however, includes the posts cut by farmers from their own woodlots, which far exceed in number the posts sold. The total cut is therefore very large. The more expensive kinds of wood, such as white oak and cedar, which have long been used for posts, are now too scarce and too much in demand for other uses to allow of their meeting the demand for posts. Fortunately most of the so-called "inferior" woods are well adapted to preservative treatment. This is especially true of the cottonwoods, aspens, willows, sycamore, low-grade pines, and some of the gums. When properly treated these woods will outlast the best grades of untreated timber and are therefore cheaper and more satisfactory. It is the purpose of this circular to show how fence posts may be treated and with what results. CAUSES OF DECAY. To appreciate the value of any preservative treatment, it is necessary to know what causes decay, and how a preservative treatment tends to prevent it. Briefly, decay in timber is caused by the action • In certain regions it is a paying investment to plant rapid-growing trees, like black locust and catalpa, especially for posts. Information on this subject is given in publications of the Forest Service which deal with forest extension and replacement. [Cir. 117] |