The silver lance., 1899-07-14
COUNTRY WITH ONE SAWMILL.
Yet 1t Abounds In Valuable and Beauti-
full Woods.

full Woods.
Uncle Sans new possessions, Cuba
and the Philippines, are destined to
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
and 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 Firs. regi-
ment of Washington volunteers,
practical furniture maker, recently
wrote to Charles X. Sigh of Spokane.
from Manila. as follows: There are
half dozen hardwoods here that take
a high polish. They are somewhat
1ghter than mahogany in appearance.
| know the name of only one, camphor
wood. l think the others do not grow
In other places. The native names
would not enlighten you in regard to
them. Ebony is also abundant 1t is
of mahogany that wish to speak, and
on this point l beg information. 1t is
the bull pine, or water elm of this
country, SO to speak. The meanest
hovel as well as the plainest partition
work is of mahogany. Notwithstand-
ing its abundance. lumber is high here.
The native works almost for a song,
but when it comes to whipsawing 1000
feet of boards you can understand why
many people can't stand much of this
song. There is one sawmll in the
islapds. The logs are cut up in the
mountains and hewed out square, then
nosed SO that they will plow 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 quartered in an old palace, once the
residence of the archbishop of the
church. l have been told by some OF
the oldest natives that it has been
here for fifty-eight years. In the main
floor upstairs all ths boards are two
feet wide and over, none less. They
are laid with screws that have heads
not a 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. l am not posted on the differ
ent qualities of lumber, but my judg-
IL, 20 hty,1 fu
best"
James A. Fitzhenry, OF Company B,
same regiment, writes a Ballard friend
as follows
They tell us that this is the great
est timber country in the world. There
are four kinds of mahogany,
ebony, camphor wood and red wood.
There are some fne timber claims that
run right down to the edge OF the riv-
er OF all the timber that is used here
there is only one sawmill on the island
That is run by a Chinaman, and he
only saws the logs into cants. and the
cants are sold, and the man that buys
them has to whipsaw them and make
his lumber. These cants sell for 500
(Mexican) thousand. Mahogany logs
grow nearly as large as the fir in the
states AS mahogany is the principal
wood, you can see for yourself how
much money a man could make II he
owned a sawmill here. Before this
trouble with the insurgents got so bad
my captain told me that there were
ten officers of different regiments form
| ing a syndicate and were going to send
to the States for backing to start
sawmill. They say that there will be
a boom in this country as soon as the
trouble is over If so. this will be
good place to make money. A man
can start a small business and hire
native labor for so cents day, Mexi-
can money; that is, rs cents in our
money"