Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-02-03
On a Big Mahogany Ranch.
HOW THE WOOD is CUT AND
SHIPPED FROM MEXICO.

| INV TIE y0OG 10 ~ 49,
/ SHIPPED FROM MEXICO.
1t Is Found on Very FERTILE Land,
Generally of Rolling Nature and
Well Drained-Most Expensive and
Arduous Part of the Work.
Mahogany is probably more popu-
Ear 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 residences, railway coaches,
in pianos, furniture, musical instru-
wood 1t is obtained in Mexico, Cuba,
San Domingo, Central America, South
America and Africa. The mahogany
from San Domingo and Cuba, is as a
rule, close-grained and darker in color
than other varieties of the wood. While
specimens of mahogany 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 know just where
it comes from and how it is obtained,
nor one in million who has
seen it in its full maturity standing
in its native fastness-the king of the
tropical forest, sublime in its grandeur
"a veritable giant among pigmies-in
many instances so vineladen as to ap-
pear in gigantic physical contest for
supremacy over the rest of the arboral
world, its enormous branches clothed
with bright-green foliage and so far
reaching as to overshadow much of the
surrounding forest, challenging its les
ser rivals to compete with i in beauty,
symmetry and strength.
Mahogany is found on very fertile
land, generally of a rolling nature and
well drained. 1t does not grow in
swampy or sterile land. The timber cut
for export ranges in diameter from Is
inches to six feet, the greater part
being hewed square by the natives,
many of whom are very expert axe
men. 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
knocked off, one of which would give
enough good mahogany to make an or
binary dining table. These large
pieces are rarely utilized.
The reason for squaring these logs
is to secure the maximum of heart and
timber. With all the care taken there
is still waste of fully Is per cent.
of the bJst heart wood, which in the
many millions of feet exported
amounts annually to an enormous loss
to the producer. Within a few years
this wasteful system will be a thing
of the past.
Getting the timber to the streams,
where it can be floated TO a shipping
point, is the most expensive and ardu-
Gus part of the work, and as timber be-
comes scarcer the longer is THE haul
ing distance. Transportation from
forest to stream is done at night by
means of trained oven, light being OBJ
tanned by 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 according to the size of the
log and the kind of roads to be travel
ed. Some logs reqldre as many as
twenty-five yoke of oxen. To dimin-
ish friction saplings about four inches
in diameter are felled, 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 a 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 table tops and cart wheels, there
being many that make table tops six
feet in diameter, the grain running in
all directions
In Mexico, as in some other magog
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
than can be marketed at a profit only
by ,ne investment of large capital in
logging railways and other modern
methods This is now being done by
several strong companies of Chicago,
Pennsylvania and Iowa, that have pur-
chased large tracts or timber lands in
the State of Campeche ranging from
100000 to 100000 acres each-Chicago
Chronicle.