The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-02-12
ALL ABOUT MAHOGANY.
flow the Cutting Is DOne-A Tree Hunter-Flost-
ing Logs to Tide Water.

flow the Cutting Is Done-A Tree Hunter-Float.
ing Logs to Tide Water.
In the year 1897, one of Sir Walter
Raleigh's ships, in an expedition
against the Azores, put in at Trinidad
for repairs. The workmen used thu
first wood that came to hand, and II
happened to be the now famous ma
hogany. BY this accident it was first
introduced into England, where it was
much admired, but it did not become
an article of commerce until century
later. Since then it has held first
rank as a cabinet makers wood.
The mahogany tree is native Of
the West Indies, Central and South
America, and it is most abundant on
the coast of Honduras, and around
Campeachy Bay. The term "abunr
dant'' must be taken in a qualified
sense. however, since the greed Of
dealers has stripped hundreds Of
square miles, and, as in all numbering
operations, as much is destroyed as H.
used. In consequence, mahogany ID
yearly decreasing in supply and in
creasing in price. Single logs have
been sold for S., 900 for cutting into
veneers, in which state it is generally
used.
To fell large mahogany tree is one
days task for two men. At the base
of these trees large excresences or
''spurs'' project, which can only be-
cut away with great difficulty; so scat
folds have to be erected and the tree
stump from ten to fifteen feet high-a
waste of the very best wood.
While the work of telling and hew-
ing is in progress, other gangs are
employed in making roads and bridges
over which the logs are to be hauled
to the river. One wide truck pass as
they call it, is made through the CEN
ter of the district occupied by the
works, and branch roads are opened,
from the main avenue to each tree.
The trucks employed are clumsy
and Anticipated contriyances, which
no American would think of using.
Most of the trucking is done at night
by torchlights made of pitch pine
The oxen are fed on the leaves and
twigs of the bread-nut tree, which
gives them more strength and power
of endurance than any other obtain
able iood.
The trucking is done in the dry
season, and the logs collected on the
bank of the river, and made ready for
the floods, which occur on the longest
rivers in June and July, and on all in
October and November
The logs are turned adrift loose.
and caught below near the tide-water
by booms. Indians and Caribs follow
the logs down the river in small boats
to release those which are caught by
fallen trees, or other obstacles in the
river.
The manufacturing process consists
in saving off the log ends, which
have been bruised and spliutered by
rocks in the transit down the river,
and in refining and relieving the logs
by skillful workmen who give them
smooth and even surface.
The logs are then measured, rolled
back into the water at the mouth
of the river, and made into RATS
to be taken to the vessel, which
is anchored outside of the bar This
is laborious and risky operation,
often resulting in serious losses to the
shipper or the owners Of the vesse1,~
according to the conditions of the bill
of lading.
irresponsible natives construct and
conduct the RATS to the vessel, and it
frequently happens, especially in bad
weather. or by gross carelessness.>
that logs break away from the RATS
and are carried away out to sea, to. be-
deposited finally on the shores of these
islands, or the mainland, where they
are eagerly appropriated by the
natives, and utilized for ship-building,
furniture, and so on..-Golden Days !