In 1868 Mr. S. Beer patented a process for preserving wood by simply washing out the sap from its cells.  Having ascertained that borax is a solvent for sap, he prepared a number of specimens by boiling them in a solution of borax.  For small specimens, this answered well, and a signboard treated in that way (experiment No. 13) was preserved a long time; but when applied to large timber, the process was found very tedious and slow, and no headway has been made in introducing it.

Experiment No. 14 was brought about by accident.  Some years age it was discovered that there was a strip of road in the track of the Union Pacific Railroad, in Wyoming Territory, about ten miles in length, where the ties do not decay at all.  The Chief Engineer, Mr. Blinkinsderfer, kindly took up a cotton wood tie in 1882, which had been laid in 1868, and sent a, piece of it to the committee.  It is as sound and a good deal harder than when first laid, 14 years before, while on some other parts of the road cottonwood ties perish in two or five years.

The character of the soil where these results have been observed is light and soapy, and Mr. E. Dickinson, Superintendent of the Laramie Division, furnishes the following analysis: 

Sodium chloride     10.64
Potassium            4.70
Magnesium sulphate   1.70
Silica               0.09
Alumina              1.94
Ferric oxide         5.84
Calcium carbonate   22.33
Magnesium            3.39
Organic matter       4.20
Insoluble matter   941.47
Loss in analysis     4.00
Traces of phosphorous acid and ammonia.

The following remarks made by the chemists who made the analysis may be of interest: 

“The decay of wood arises from the presence in the wood of substances which are foreign to the woody fiber, but are present in the juices of the wood while growing, and consist of albuminous matter, which, when beginning to decay, causes also the destruction of the other constituents of the wood.”

“One of the means adopted to prevent the destruction of wood by decay is by the chemical alteration of the constituents of the sap.”

“This is brought about by impregnating the wood with some substance which either enters into combination with the constitutents of the sap or so alters their properties as to prevent the setting up of decomposition.”

“The analysis of this soil shows that it contains large quantities of the substances (sodium, potassium chloride, calcium, and iron) most used in the different processes of preserving or kyanizing wood.  It also contains much inorganic matter, which also acts as a preserving agent.”

Some of the ties so preserved have been transferred to other portions of the track, and some of the soil has also been transported to other localities, so that it is hoped that in the discussion that may be expected to follow this report, some further light will be thrown on the subject by an account of the results of these experiments.