Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1888-05-26


the days in the deep woods Americans can
form no conception of these Cuban forests.
Perhaps the noblest of them are in the re-
gion along the northeast coast. There the
stateliness and grandeur, as well as value, of
these forest trees are almost incredible. To
illustrate, in the wilderness between the old
walled town of Holguin and the sea, at Sepa,
where the forests are almost impenetrable, I
have friend, who, at a venture three years
since, purchased tract of nearly thirty
Thousand for fifty thousand dollars. All
commercial New York laughed at him. But
he went there and began in a modest way
cutting and shipping mahogany. To day he
is worth five million dollars; has three hun-
dred yekes Of oxen; employs over regiment
of men; lives Ikea lord in a palace of ma
hogany; and practically has not yet touched
his giant trees, from among which the other
day he had one cut and transported TO the
sea, by the use of fifty yokes of oxen, which
squared fifty-six inches and contained six
thousand feet Commercial measurement) of
lumberl That one log laid down in Phila-
delphia, New York or Bosten, is worth near-
ly one thousand dollars. Throughout the
whole island, with its total area of about
forty six thousand square miles, from ex-
tended observation and travel in every one
of its six provinces, and aided by the best
Judgment of hundreds of Cubans with whom
I have eenversed, would say that, at a mod
crate estimate, one-half or fully twenty three
thousand square miles of the entire area is
covered by virgin forest. And who could be
SO daring as to estimate the value of these
forests filed as they are with the most valua-
BILE of woods known to commerce and mod
ern architecture were Cuba ours and it's peo
pie frees At no greater price than is now
paid for large tracts of American pine
"stumpage' the untouched forests of Cuba
are to day worth fifteen million dollars. But
as every acre holds woods worth far more
TON, l1i1a H1,n nAe
and every standing tree at the remotest dis
tance is not seventy y-fve miles from an acces-
sible seaport point, the ridiculously low esti-
mated value of one hundred dollars per acre
would give total valuation to Cuban for
ests, exclusive of all expense of numbering
and marketing, of over billion and half
dollars All the righteous sentiment which
should be felt by the citizens of free and
great republic for people enslaved by an in
conceivably hateful and hated tyranny at our
very doors aside, there would seem to here
and there exist an occasional reason why this
transcendent1y rich and beautiful country
should be ours.
| CUBAN WOODS.
The variety and serviceable value of these
Cuban woods are as remarkable as their area
and luxuriance; while the nature and char
acteristics of many, in their adaptability to
the rude uses of tropical life, form most fas-
cinsting studies. have already mentioned
tions of the island is used for piers, bulk
heads, house foundations and in all places
where practically indestructible material is
required; but is found in greatest profusien
along the southern coast. 1t is harder than
horn and whenever it is felled in the forests
or worked for use the 1abradors or wood
choppers always construct forges near at
hand, upon which their axes and other edged
ltools are constantly repaired. Contrary to
general belief oak and hickory abound;
while cedars of tremendous size, frequently
\ twelve feet in circumference, are as common
as maple in Vermont. The mahogany is a
colossal tree here. have seen many on this
southern coast requiring five men, finger
tips to tips, to reach around. Their height
is from sixty to one hundred and twenty
five feet. Differing from the clustering
habit of most forest trees, they are always
found standing alone separated by distances
of from twenty to fifty feet by specimens
of other families. In the finer forests per-
haps half hundred may be found upon
one acre of ground. It is called the caobas
here, and with its massive trunk, dark, reg
u1ar but shaggy bark and its noble spread
ing top much like the Indian laurel, it is
one of the grandest occupants of the Gu
ban forest. The mantequeros is precisely
like our American poplar in appearance,
bark. fiber, branch and leaf; but its March
load of blossoms, similar to the beautiful Ca
mellia, fills the land with odor, and it also
bears small sueculent mt upon which wild
and domesticated swine quickly fatten. The
gueso is tree very similar to our hickory,
with tight, shining bark and round, wax
like leaf. 1t is the "bone-wood" of Cuba
and is much used for yokes and cart timber.
The almiqui is a splendid tree. reminding
strikingly of the California red wood, which
has of late come into such general use in the
States for car tirabers and interior house fn-
ishiugs. While its trunk has not SO great a
diameter, the texture is finer, the color deep
er and the wood susceptible of higher poll
ish. The guayco is the hgnum vitae. Its
character and value require no description.
It grows in profusion in the denser forests of
the island, attaining diameter of shree and
q height of seventy-fve feet. Then there are
the jequies of the same family and density of
fiber as the guabrahaca; the rosewood, with
whose beauty We are all familiar; the carne
de dencella, even superior to rosewood in
depth of color and luster of finish; the sabi-
ma or sandal-wood, whose fragrance fills
thousands of our grandmothers' clothes Gloss
cts in New England, slow of growth, delicate
in bark like our pine in leaves, the twigs and
branches of which are priced in Cuban homes
for driving away moths; the majagua, giving
wood of green color, marvelously beautiful
in grain and which polishes even finer than
mahogany; the laurel, unequalled save in In
dia for luxurianee and symmetry; the royal
palms, hardy forest trees, but standing here
and there in majestic groups at the edges OF
dark forests like stately sentinels; and the
coco, quite as Oriental and mystic in strange,
weird loneliness or in great groves of thou
| sands, the tropic breezes ever chanting and
| soughing among the sky piercing, pinnate
leaves.
From many standpoints the latter is the
most interesting. It's uses are extraordinari-
| ly varied. The guajiras cook and eat its
| leaves and roots, and baskets are made of the
| latter. Canoes are fashioned from tree
| trunks. The ribs of the larger leaves fur
nish excellent paddles. Torches and arrows
are also made from them. Sugar, vinegar
and potash are secured from the wood. The
| ripened nuts, of which a mature tree will
| furnish about one hundred annually, are an
| important article of food and export, while
| the crystal liquid within the green nut is
/ the most potential diuretic known, and forms
| universal Cuban drink in the aqua de COCO.
| The ripened nuts strange, half-human eyes
are the outlook of the coco's perpetual life.
Through these the new tree breaks to the
sun. The ovuls is a slender, cone-shaped
mass cased in the largest end of the nut Its
| sustentation in propagation is drawn from
the rich, milky meat. In whatever direction
the shoot may be pointed it steers straight
for the zenith. Innumerable delicate, thread
like roots fill the nut and feed upon the
mother heart there until nutrition is exhaust
ed when the powerful shell parts like an egg
shell and the quick soil receives the out
reaching roots lovingly. Within four or i've
4 wears fruit is borne and for half century
continues in ever increasing supply, clustered
up there in the very top of the trees a.
though hiding beneath their ever waving
pIume-like tufts of foliage. H you would
know Cuba leave her weird old cities and gel
close to the glowing, exultant heart of nature
in her flora, birds and tremendous forests.
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.