Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1905-01-12
A FOREST RESERVE
Chara cteristic Tropical Forest and
the Uses To Which &c Can Be Put.

the Uses To Which ft Can Be Put.
That one of our National forest re-
serves is in Porto Rico is fact of
which very few people in the United
States are aware. Yet both in the
extraordinary variety OF botanical
species which its forests contain and
in the picturesqueness and novelty Of
it's scenery this reserve stands second
TO none of those In our Western
states, while il has the unique distinc-
tion of being the only tropical forest
which this country owns on this side
of the globe.
The Luquillo forest reserve was
created by Presidential proclamation
in January, 1908. 1t embraces some
$3.50 acres of land in the eastern
and most mountainous part of the
island. Compared with most of the
western reserves this is small. But
the whole island of Porto Rico is
only about three-quarters the size of
Connecticut and consequently offers
no room for large reserve.
The Luquillo reserve was set aside
from certain public lands in Porto
Rico which we're formerly the prop
erty of the Spanish government 1t
is joined by private holdings and also
to some extent by lands the title to
which in now vested in the Insular
Government, which is possessed of all
lands not reserved by the federal
government before June 30, 1903 The
whole region within which the re-
serve lies has never been surveyed or
accurately mapped, and the boundar-
les between the private and the pub
lie holdings are very vague and UNI
defined. In practice the agricultur-
lists to whom the private lands belong
have pushed their clearings as far up
the mountain sides as it was profit
able for them to go, and have helped
themselves more or less. to whatever
timber they needed from the access
ible forest beyond. These depreda-
tons have not been, on the whole,
very serious, owing to the tropical
character of the forest and the diff
culties of transportation, but the ex-
act definition of the line between the
reserve and the adjoining private
owners is pressing need.
What the value of the reserve will
be as source of timber supply is
more or less problematical. Mahogany
il ever present in the forest, as seems
probab BILE, has been entirely exter-
minated, and the cigar-boX cedar is
also practically gone. Valuable
woods remain, but the essentially
tropical character of the forest, in
which great number of species con-
tend with one another for possession,
re- lc 49,. ., problem of management
/ Mixes tie ~ g.. ,,yuo.a 800,
very difficult one. wee
abound, and there is no uniformity OF
forest growth. individuals of the
same species occur scattered sparsely
and irregularly through the dense
| forest and it is an extraordinary fact
that within so narrow range as the
| island affords certain kinds which in
some places grow to be large and
beautiful limb. trees elsewhere ex-
ist as shrubs.
The best of the forest ia the re-
serve is that found in the fertile
gorges, rayines, and covers from 500
to 1000 feet above sea level, where
the trees are protected from the con-
slant winds. There are four leading
timber trees-the tabanuco, with a
wood very like our sycamore, the
laurel sabine, which would grade in
the market with yellow poplar, the
ausubo, comparable with black wal
nut, and the guaraguao, similar to
red cedar. All these trees reach a
large size, ranging from 2 to feet in
diameter. The tabanuco has, in ad-
dition, the very valuable character
istic that it tends to form pure or
nearly pure stands. 1t produces a
kind of gum which may prove to be
an article of commercial Importance
Many climbing vines add to the
density of the vegetation There is
also species of grass which grows
feet high and cuts like a razor It
the lightest touch. But the most
abundant growth is that of the noun
tain palms. They are very beauti-
full, but of little or no value, and to
get rid of them will be at once a
necessary and most difficult matter
II permanent production of salable
timber is to be secured. They grow
40 feet high, and already cover fully
half of the best part of the reserve
Yielding as they do an immense
amount of seed, and growing very
| thickly, nothing else in the forest