Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1891-07-10

end is the team. At the word they tug
and strain upward, and as the rope
grows taut the big log rolls uphill.
Wien the cable length is out the log il
scotched, the whole process repeated,
and continued sometimes till the load
lies safe beside river or railway. There
it lies till buyer comes or high water
floats it to lowland markets. In that
case the purchaser better look out. In
one case on rerord sharp mountaineer
tackled walnut bark all over five-foot
sycamore, RATED it down the Cumber-
land, sold it for some hundred dollars
and got off with the money before the
cheat was discovered.
Cherry has much the same habitat as
walnut, and is handled nearly the same
way. The main difference is that it is
not so liable to split, hence does not
need such care in telling. 1t fetches 500
to $50 thousand feet, and either solid
or in veneers is one of the most useful
hardwoods. Walnut is the base of
nearly all the so called ebony, into which
it is converted with aniline stain.
For long cherry often did duty for
mahogany. Now that it is almost as
costly, it is used in its own name and
color. The unweildiness of timber is
main element of cost. Every handling
almost doubles the price. Freight rates,
high as they are, sink to nothing beside
deckage, loading and unloading.
A timber ship in the tropics is often
five months taking cargo. She will dis
charge it at New York pier inside of
five days. There are blocks along that
water front fragrant with the clean, pun
gent smell of sawdust from Spanish
cedar, mahogany, rosewood and many
more. Mexico, Cuba and the West
Indies, send all of them at prices not
much beyond those paid for walnut.
After the trees are felled they are
hewn square so as to fit solid in the
ships hold. Veneers of them are cut
thinner than those of birch-about thirty
to the inch. They are worth triple the
same measure in the plank. The saw
dust is saved for use in the arts-notably
for tanning fine fur, wherein it is the
active agent.
England spares us little of her oak
precious little, though, for magnificent
price. All of it goes into cabinet work
or for interior carvings and decorations
in very swell houses. Black Irish oak
comes, too, in very limited supply, but
sufficient for the few who prefer it to
native timber.
Though we have more than twenty
sorts of oak, the red and white ones are
those that furnish forth our walls and
halls and wooden needs generally. II
is usually quarter sawed-that is, cut in
four before making into boards. The
Japanese oak, :" so-called, is a curious
triumph of mechanics over nature. II
shows a notified or rather mackerel
grain, like nothing that ever grew-for
all that oddly handsome. To make IL
the knife edge is crinkled and made to
eat its way with lateral motion, thus cut
ting in one plane the growth of dozen
years. 1t takes enormous pressure to
bring out smooth surface, bu. it comes
after awhile and remains without trouble.
Oaken wood comes from all over the
The biggest and best, though,
is cut in the river bottoms south and
west or on northern slopes of the mount
hin lands from West Virginia down.
Birdseye or rock maple grows in YER
mont, northern New York and the hill
and of New England generally. 1t is
n demand for furniture, carriage and
,ar building, as we'll as for facing panels
IF steamers, houses and so on. 1t costs
lbout the same as oak-S45 to $50 the
thousand. California redwood is hand
'ome Of grain and easy to work, but for
is popularity of shrinl1ing-lengthwise
IS we'll as in width-it would doubtless
ank high among ornamental timbers.
California, too, sends us what is known
IS white mahogany. 1t is valued at
5000 the carload, pays about S400
reight, and perhaps costs the city owner
# it as much more at the siding.-Chi-
nm Na,no