Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-31
PHILIPPINE FORESTS
Immense Quantities Of Mahogany
and Other Hardwoods,
4 VISIT TO B MANILA SAWMILL
Reasons for Believing That There
is Gold in Abundance.
POINTS FOR PROSPECTORS
POINTS FOR PROSPECrORS
Copyrighted. 1900. by Frank G.. Carpenter.
pecial Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

MANILA. February IA, 1900.
1 visited one of the biggest sawmiils of
the Philippines today. 1t is owned by
Chinese AMI Chinese laborers were turning
the great legs into boards The Pasig river.
on which the mill stands, was lined with
legs. Other sawmills above and below
were busily working. and the scratch, scratch
of the it cut through the hard wood
could be everywhere heard. Each sawmiil
had scores II men employed. and the scenes
in all of them We're far different from any
thing you will find in the United states. In
the first place. the logs had been barked in
the forests. some having been Strengthened
by chipping All were of the heaviest of
hardwood and all had grain and color
which would have made them exceedingly
valuable could they have been sold in our
country. The most wonderful thing about
the mill was its absolute lack of machinery.
1t was an immense building covering almost
an acre and consisting of merely roof
and the poles which upheld it. The floor
was the earth and there were no walls at
the sides,
The logs We're placed upon trestIes about
as high up from the ground as your waist
and at each log four half naked Chinese
were saving away. With pencil they
marked off the width of a board from the
top of the log and then at each end began
to pull crosscut saws across it. The log lay
horizontally on the trestles. and the han
dies of the saws arranged at right
angles with the blades that by pulling them
back and forth the men could saw a strip
of board off the log. The two pair of men
were saving toward leach other. beginning
at the opposite ends of the log and care
fully watching the lines till they met In the
center They then made a second mark
and went on to saw off the next board.
Such work requires careful watching to
saw straight. and long time to cut sin
BILE board. but it is in this way that all the
lumber used in this city of 350,Om people
is made. The planning is also done by hand
and all classes of wood making
operations
HardwOOds of the Philippines.
When | was told in the United States
that there We're in the Philippines rosewood
logs nine feet in diameter. and that the ties
of the Manila-Da gupan railroad Were made
nf mahogany. I inclined to doubt the
statements. Now that | am on the ground
I doubt them no longer. There is enough
mahogany here to furnish ties for a rail
road across the continent, and the varieties
Cf hardwood are so numerous that a nine
foot rosewood log would not surprise me.
I talked yesterday with an army officer
who has travelled extensively in the ma
hoganY forests of the West Indies and
Central America, and who has just return
cd from march through the woods of
northern Luzon. He says the mahogany
trees there surpass in size the trees of
SlntO Domingo, Mexico ana HONDURAS. /
hear similar stories of the eastern PROV
inces and also of those which face the Pa
cific, All this is on the Island Of Luzon,
which is less timbered than many of the
southern islands.
There are said to be more than three hun
dred varieties of hardwood on the islands.
of which at least fifty have a high com
mercial value. I have seen many of the
different kinds. but know the names of but
few. Yesterday visited a piano manuf,cJ-
"ry. where the instruments made from
the ground up. The metal is cast the SOUND
ing boards sawed out and the polished cases
dressed and finished. The results are as
good as in the best piano factories of the
United States. and in all cases native woods
are used Our ordinary piano WOODS viii
not stand the Philippine climate. The
sounding boards in this damp moist air
lose their resonance. and within a few
months the best Instruments become trny.
There is wood here which stands the eli
mate and which this piano maker thinks
will eventually be used fpr musical instru-
ments in all damp regions
Floors of Mahogany.
Nearly all Of The floors of the best houses
Of Manila iare Of nara a wood much like
mahogany. 1t has the same grain and takes
a beautiful polish. The Oriente Hotel where
am stopping, is d great building of three
stories. with wide stairaces and immense.
halls. Its floors are made of these Filipino
mahogany boards each of which is from
eighteen inches to two feet in width and
from fifteen 10 twenty feet long The stairs
are Of the same rich material. and the rail-
lnGS have polish equal to that of a piano.
The beds are of hardwood, with great hard
wood canopies over them. and such of the
furniture as is not imported is of the same
material
There churches here which have coll
umns and floors and ceilings of mahogany
and see that this same wood forms most
Of tn" timhers in the barges and boats of
the Pastg river, boats a hundred and more
g at lFrfr hot Il.
are foored with it. and it is in fact. as
common as pine in the United States
This wood Is. however. only one of the
hardwoods There are others of different
colors- Some woods take a polish like the
finest rosewood but have a grain and a
color ike bird's-eye maple, others are of
a rich coffee hue. others red and others
much like black walnut Some of the woods
are hard like teak and some are so heavy
they will not float In the Island of Min
dor6 alone, thirty miles from here it Is
said there are 1o6 different varieties of
woods, of which fifty hard many being
fitted for shipbulding and fine furniture
making.
Ants Which Eat Wood.
There are several varieties OF wood here
which tie white ants will not eat. These are
the only kinds that are of much value for
furniture or building in the Philippines The
white ants arr little insects about as large
as our common small ant They feed upon
wood and they will eat up a trunk or store
box in night They make a little hole in
the wood and then go on eating away until
1t Is nothing but shell. Last week among
the goods which arrived on one of ths
transports were dozen rolling pins for
making bread. When the box which con-
talhed them was opened only pile of white
dust and two pins were discovered. When
the pins were picked up one of them broke
In two and the other dropped into pieces
The white ants had liked the favor of the
wood and eaten them.
These ants sometimes attack warehouses
when they are not made of hard woods
and a slight earthquake shock brings the
buildings to the ground. They are fond an
parently of mucilage and paste, for they
have eaten the labels off the bottles in the
hospital disDensaries and attacked the
corks. Not long ago one Of our surgeons
upon opening a box of bottles containing
alcohol found that the bottles We're only
half full. He suspected that the box had
been tempered with until it was found
that the ants had honeycombed the corks
and that the liquor had evaporated There
was not a sign the outside of the hoy