Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1899-07-13
COUNTRY WITH ONE sAWMlLL.
Yet IL Abounds In Valuable and Beauti.
full Woods.


uncle Sans new possessions. Cuba
and the Philippines, are destined ia
cut considerable figure in the lumber
trade as soon as American methods OF
push and enterprise are adopted, says
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Cuba
possesses some OF the best mahogany
ana spanish cedar in the world. and
the Philippine islands are covered With
mahogany. ebony, camphor wood and
other valuable hardwood forests. j.
u. Hinkle, member of the FRS. reai-
ment OF Washington volunteers. a
practical furniture maker. recently
wrote to Charles r. Sigh of Spokane
from Manila, as follows: There are
half dozen hardwoods here that take
a high polish. They are somewhat
lighter than mahogany in appearance.
l know the name OF only one, camphor
wood. | think the others do not grow
In other places. The native names
would not enlighten you in regard to
them. Ebony is also abundant. Ii is
OF mahogany that | wish TO speak, and
on this point | beg information, 1t is
the bull pine. or water elm OF this
country, SO to speak. The meanest
novel as well as the plsinest partition
work is Of mahogany. Notwithstand-
Ing its abundance, lumber is high here.
The native works almost for a song.
but when 1t comes to whipsawing / 200
feet OF boards you can understand why
many people can't stand much of this
song. There is one sawmill in the
Islands. The logs are cut up in the
mountains and hewed out square. then
nosed so that they will pillow through
reeds, grass, etc, down the Pasig river.
There are great yards full of them. and
with American machinery and enter
prise this industry could be made of
enormous profit A word as to the
quality Of the lumber. We are at pres
ent CHARTERED in an old palace, once the
residence of the archbishop of the
church. / have been told by some of
the Oldest natives that ii has been
mere for fifty-eight years. In the main
floor upstairs all the boards are two
feet wide and over, none less. They
are laid with screws that have heads
countersunk and covered There is
not single season check or knot in
the floor that have found. There are
old places in the altar work of the
various churches that have been built
as far back as 1743 that only changes
to the darker color with this weight of
years. | am not posted on the differ
ent qualities of lumber, but my judg-
ment leads me to think this is the
best"
James A. Fitzhenry, Of Company b,
same regiment, writes Ballard friend
as follows:
They tell us that this is the great
est timber country in the world. There |
are four kinds of timber-mahogany, |
ebony, camphor wood and red wood. |
There are some fine timber claims that |
run right down to the edge of the riv-
er. OF all the timber that is used here
here is only one sawmill on the island.
mat is run by a Chinaman. and he
only saws the logs into cants. and the
ants are sold, and the man that buys
hem has to whipsaw them and make
lis lumber. These cants sell for 800
Mexican) thousand. Mahogany logs
ROW nearly as large as the fir in the
tates. AS mahogany is the principal
wood, you can see for yourself how
much money man could make if he
wned a sawmill here. Before this
rouble with the insurgents got SO bad
ny captain told me that there were
en- officers of different regiments form
ng syndicate and were going to send
the States for backing to start
awmill. They say that there will be
boom in this country as soon as the
nouble is over. If so, this will be a
God place to make money. A man
an start a small business and hire
alive labor for so cents a day, Next
In money; that is, 20 cents in our
Ioney."