An increase from three and one-half million gallons of the oil of coal tar, or creosote, as it is popularly known, imported into the City of New York in z9o4, to an amount estimated to be almost twenty-five million gallons last year, is one of the indications pointing to the progress of the nationwide movement for the conservation of forest resources.
It is creosote which the government and scores of corporations and private wood users have found to be one of the most satisfactory preserva-.tives of railroad ties, mine props, telephone an~.telegraph poles, fence posts, and for timbers used for other commercial purposes. Lengthening the life of timber in use means the lessening of the drain on the country's forests,
β’ and what is mm'e important to the averagebusiness man, it means the saving of thousands of dollars annually spent for the labor of the frequent renewals made necessary when untreated timber is'used.
Ten years ago the strongest advocates of the creosoting method of preserving wood could scarcely have hoped for the present advanced state of this industry. Creosoting is becoming the acknowledged standard means of increasing the life of timbers.
Formerly the production of creosote, from both coal tar and wood tar, far exceeded any. demand for wood treating purposes. However, the number of wood-preserving plants has grown so rapidly within the last four years that this country is not now able to supply its own demand for coal tar creosote.
A brief study of the importation columns of the trade journals shows the effect of the growth of the wood preservation industry. In the whole year of I9o4 the New York imports amounted to only 3,5oo,ooo gallons. By the end of I9o7, the importation had increased to 17,5oo#oo gallons, while for the present year conservative estimates place the imported coal tar creosote at between 22 to 25 million gallons.
The year has started most auspiciously; during a five-weeks' period in December and January the importation through New York alone was 15#oo tons, giving a weeklyaverage of 3,ooo tons or 68,ooo gallons. It is significant that during this same period the importation of related by-products from coal kept pace with that of creosote. Ammonium carbonate, chloride, sulphate,