The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18
MAHOGANY BY
 TIE SHIP LOAD
New Orleans Is Port for Great
 Industry
OF CENTRAL AMERICA
Trees Are of Slow Growth, Many Bear- ing Evidence of Being Thou
 sand Years Old

From the New Orleans Times-Democrat. | The busy saws in the mahogany mill are going day and night at this season of the year. There are seasons during which only day runs are made, but the strain is on just now and the machinery never stops. During the 24 hours 60,O00 feet of lumber are cut in the mill. Month after month the ships come over; at | least 20 cargoes a year coming to anchor beside the "gunwale." There is no such thing as bringing the logs in ballast They compose the ships entire cargo. A great many ships are devoted to this enterprise, and to them there is no other object in life but to get the logs from the tropical ports and bring them to New Orleans and unload them here and go back for more. Ten million feet year of mahogany comes Into New Or leans and Is partly manufactured here. It is a business of no small importance which has gone it's quiet way for nearly a quarter of a century.
 As one stands beside the long chute or "gangway'' and watches an endless . chain bringing up the ponderous logs from the river to the mill one has strange fancies concerning the wild for ests in which these logs grew but little while ago. In Mexico, Honduras, Gen. tral America, the contractor gives s5 for a single tree This Is cheap enough. One would be glad of the opportunity to buy up a whole mahogany forest at that price. But 1t is the expense of getting it out that counts and that makes ma hogany an expensive lumber. It stands deep In the forest, in the midst of an almost impenetrable jungle. There arc no groves of them-the trees are scat tered, perhaps not more than two to an acre. It may be that there Is no water course at hand on which the logs can be floated to the, port. The tree has to be located by the "hunter," whose busi- ness it is to roam through the forest, in search of mahogany trees, and to blaze a way to them, so that they may be found again. Then the workmen must cut their laborious way to the tree, using for the purpose the deadly ma chete."
 The machete, turned into a pruning hook, makes a very effective weapon, however, and in the course of time the men get to the tree.
 It is a beautiful tree, tall and shapely, with the lowest branches at least 50 feet from the ground
 Used for Firewood
 It may well be believed that mahog any does not claim the respect in its own land that 1t does in ours. There has been much comment on the fact that 1t is used for railroad ties in the lands across the gulf and this may we'll be. An immense amount of it Is so far from the coast and from any present means of transportation that it practically is vslueless to the owner of the land, so he views the waste of it with compara- tive indifference. No doubt what few fires are needed in those regions are built of mahogany, and are found to be very good indeed. We have been known to waste valuable woods in our own land on occasion, and perhaps the people of the mahogany countries will learn wis dom in time also
 It is gratifying to know that there Is no wholesale destruction of the mahog- any forests, however. The young tim Der has to be preserved. At one time it was the law that no tree should be cut which squared less than IS inches quite large tree as one will notice but that has become rather a dead let ter, and trees smaller than this are cut every day. Still there is some effort to preserve the timber, and even to do an appreciable amount of reforestation. A man who had a tree cut was in some parts of the country under obligations to plant three young trees. It is sad 10 relate that most of the contractors who set this law aside altogether or who planted the trees in such slack and indifferent manner that they died were Americans. The trees are of very slow growth, many of the large trees, 1t is said bearing evidence of being at least a thousand years old; and when thers is carelessness or greed ir cutting it means much to the future of the mahog- any business
 Made Into Fake Antiques
 There are cities which are excellent markets for worm-eaten mahogany. This Is manufactured into fake antiques. Very often the sap is pierced by a small