The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1876-08-18
Mahogany.


other directions, plays an important rOie in
the printing and electrotyping business in
this country, it being employed for great
variety of purposes, the following extract
from the Church LuiOn may be read with in
terest
The mahogany tree was discovered just
little before the year 1000, and not till near
ly a century later was it brought into Euro
pean use. The first mention of it is that it
was used in the repair of some of Sir Walter
Raleigh's ships, at Trinidad, in 1897. Its
finely variegated tints were admired but in
that age the dream of Ell Dorado caused
matters of more value to be neglected. The
first that was brought to Europe was about
the beginning of the last century, few
planks having been sent to DIR. Gibbons, of
London, by brother who was a West India
Captain. The Doctor was erecting a house,
and gave the planks to the workmen, who
rejected them as being too hard. The Doc
tor then had a candle-box made of the wood
his cabinetmaker also complaining of the
hardness of the timber. But when finished,
the box became an object of general curiosi-
ty and admiration. He had one bureau and
Her Grace of Buckingham had another,
made of this beautiful wood and the de-
| spised mahogany now became prominent
| article of luxury, and at the same time raised
the fortunes of the cabinet-maker (Wollas-
tom, by whom it had been at first so little
regarded Since that time, rivaling and al
most displacing all other ornamental woods,
mahogany has become everywhere indispen-
sible, and is, all over the world, converted
into whatever of useful or beautiful may
promote the convenience and comfort, or de-
light the taste, the caprice, or the religious
sentiment of civilized man.
The mahogany tree is found in Florida,
and may thus be claimed as indigenous ia
the United States and there is no reason to
doubt that It may and hereafter will be
planted and cultivated to great advantage.
But hitherto it has been cut chiefly in the
native forests of the Bahamas, the West In
dia Islands, Honduras and Yucatan.
Full grown it is one of the monarchs of
the forests of tropical America. Its vast
trunk and massive arms, rising to a very lof'
ty height, and spreading with graceful SWEEP
over immense spaces-covered with beauti-
ful foliage, bright, glossy, light and airy
clinging so long to the spray as to make i
almost an evergreen present a rare combi.
nation of lOvelneSs and grandeur, Tht
leaves are very small, delicate, and polished
like those of the laurel. The flowers arc
small and white, or greenish yellow, The
fruit is a hard, woody capsule, not unlike
the egg Of turkey in size and shape, and
contains five cells, in each of which are in,
closed about fifteen seeds.
A few facts will furnish tolerably dis
tinct idea Of the size of this splendid tree
The mahogany lumberman, having selected
a tree, surrounds it with platform about
twelve feet above the ground, and cuts il
above the platform. Some dozen or fifteen
feet of the largest part of the trunk are thu:
lost Yet single log not frequently weigh,
from six or seven TO fifteen tons, and some
times measures as much as seventeen feet il
length, and four and half to five and
uull ICcl III uIdllelCIjuuS tree furnishing lWt
three, or four such logs. Some trees hav,
yielded $1,000 superficial feet, and at averag,
prices pieces have sold for $4,000. Messrs
Broadwood, London, panoforte manu-
iacturers, paid $4,000 for three logs, al
cut from one tree, and each about ffteei
feet long and more than three feet square.
In low and damp soils its growth is rapid
but the most valuable trees grow slowly
among rocks on sterile soil, and seem tC
gather compactness and beauty from the yer.
struggle which they make for an existence
In the Bahamas, in the most desolate regions
once hourished that curiously vened an,
much esteemed variety once known il
Europe as "AIadeira wood" but which ha
long since been exterminated, Jamaica
also, which used to be fruitful source O
mahogany, and whence in 1853 not less thai
52l 600 feet were shipped, is now almost de
pleted. That which is now furnished iron
there is very inferior, pale, and porous, an,
+ is less esteemed than that of Cuba, San DO
mingo or Honduras.