The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1902-12-26
ON A MAHOGANY RANCH.
How the Valuable Wood Is Cut and
Shipped From Mexico.

How the Valuable Wood Is Cut and
Shipped From Mexico.
Mahogany is probably more popular
and extensively used than any other
high class cabinet wood 1t is to be
seen in the interior finish of nearly all
our modern Office buildings, private res
licences, railway coaches in pianos, fur
niture, musical instruments, etc. 1t is
purely a tropical wood. 1t is obtained
in Mexico, Cuba, SantO Domingo, Cen
trail America, South America and Afri
ca. The mahogany from Santo DOmin-
go and Cuba is, as rule, close grained
and darker in color than other varieties
of the wood. While Africa produces
some of the finest specimens of mahog
any timber as to size, it is inferior in
texture and lacks some qualities Of
high grade wood.
While there are many millions of feet
of this beautiful and durable wood used
annually in this country, not one in a
thousand knows just where it comes
from and how it is obtained or one in
a million has seen it in its full ma
turity standing in it's native fastn esses,
the true king of the tropical forest, sub
lime in its grandeur a veritable giant
among pygmies, in many instances so
vine laden as to appear In a gigantic
physical contest for supremacy over the
rest of the arboreal world, its enormous
branches clothed with bright green TO-
liage and so farreaching as to overshad-
ow much of the surrounding forest,
challenging its lesser rivals to compete
with it in beauty, symmetry and
strength.
Mahogany is found ON very fertile
land, generally of rolling nature and
well drained. 1t does not grow in
swampy. or sterile land. The timber
cut for export ranges in diameter from
eighteen inches TO siSt feet, the greater
part being hewed square by the ma
tives, many of whom are very expert
axmen. Great care Is taken in the
Telling to avoid splitting. After telling
the trunk is cleared of vines and other
clinging vegetation and made ready
for hewing. Immense blocks are knock
ed off, one of which would give enough
good mahogany to make an ordinary
dining table. These large pieces are
rarely utilized.
The reas son for squaring these logs is
to secure the maximum of heart tim
Der With all the care taken there Is
still waste of fully 10 per cent of the
best heart wood, which in the many
millions of feet exported amounts an
nually to an enormous loss to the pro-
Queer. Within a few years this waste
full system will be thing of the past.
Getting the timber to the streams,
where it can be floated to a shipping
point is the most expensive and ar
duous part of the work. and as timber
becomes scarcer the longer Is the haul
ing distance. Transportation from for
est TO stream is done at night by means
Of trained oxen, light being obtained
nv means of torches. The work Is done
at night on account of the swarms OF
flies and other insects that torture the
animals by day. The number of oxen
employed in this work varies accord
ing to the size of the log and the kind
of roads to be Travelled. Some logs re-
auire as many as twenty-five yoke OF
oxen. To diminish friction saplings
about four inches in diameter are fell
ed, cut into four foot lengths and laid
transversely on the road at distances
of few feet
Because of the mahogany tree being
top heavy nature has provided it with
braces or what are known to the TIM
Der men as spurs, which on large tim
Der project from the base of the tree
often distance of fifteen feet, reach
ing deeply into the earth. These braces
much resemble in form ships rudder
They are used in Mexico for round Ia
BILE tops and cart wheels, there belng
many that make table tops six feet in
diameter, the grain running in all d.
rections.
In Mexico, as in some other mahog-
any producing countries, this timber
has been depleted from the forests
along nearly all of the streams deep
enough to float the logs, but there still
remains an immense supply lying some
distance from these highways that can
be marketed at a profit only by the
investment of large capital in logging
railways and other modern methods.
This is now being done by several
strong companies of Chicago, Pennsyl-
vania and Iowa that have purchased
large tracts of timber lands in the state
Of Campeche, ranging from 100000 to
600, 900 acres each.-Chicago Chronicle.