The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-02-10
MAHOGANY MILLS OF LOUISIANA
How the Trees Are Cut, Sawed and Pre-
pared for Market.

| 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 IL on Just now, and the machinery
never stops. During the tweny-four
hours 10000 feet of lumber are cut in
the mill. Month after month the ships
come over, at least twenty cargoes a
year coming to anchor beside the gum
VALE There is no such thing as bring
ing 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 trop-
ical ports and bring them to New Or
leans and unload them here and 60 back
for more. Ten million feet q year Of
mahogany comes into New Orleans, and
is partly manufactured here.
In Mexico, Honduras and Central
America the contractor gives So for a
single tree This is cheap enough. But
il is the expense Of getting it out that
counts, and that makes mahogany an
expensive lumber. 1t stands deep in the
forest in the midst Of an almost inn
penetrable Jungle There are no groves
of them the trees are sHttered, per
haps not more than two to an acre. 1t
may be that there is no water course
at hand on which the logs can be float
ed to the port. The tree has to be To-
Gated by the "hunter," whose business
it is to roam through the forest in search
of mahogany trees and 10 blaze a way
TO them, 50 that they may be found
again. Then the workmen must cut
their laborious way to the tree, using
for the purposing the deadly maehete,
with which a number of men rom this
section made unpleasant acquaintance
along in 1898. The machete turned into
a pruning hook makes very effective
weapon, however, and in the course Of
time the men get to the tree.
1t is beautiful tree, tall and shape
ly, with the lowest branches at least
sixty feet from the ground. At the bot
tom is huge swelling after the man
ner Of the cypress, and the tree is TO
be cut above that, six or eight feet from
the roots. The first work to be done
is to build a platform around the trunk,
so that the cutters can stand upon it
and WELD their axes. In the course Of
time, down comes the great monarch Of
the tropical forest, crashing through the
thick growth around 1T
The workmen trim it up, cut it into
lengths and manage to get it hauled
aud rolled TO the nearest creek. There
It must lie to await the floods OF the
rainy season, which viii lift 1t and carry
ii down stream and on to the ocean
port. There the logs are piled on the
beach to wait for a vessel, and when il
comes are rolled back into the water
and RATED and pulled out to the ships
side, always a dangerous undertaking.
for the water is rough. Once beside the
vessel the derrieks are put to work and
the logs are lifted over one by one,
lowered with much difficulty into the
hold and when enough logs have come
aboard the vessel il ready
1t may well be believed that mahogany
does not claim the respect in its own
land that it does in ours There has
been much comment on the fact that IL
is used for railroad ties in the lands
across the gulf, and this may well be.
An immense amount Of it is so far from
the coast and from any present means
of transportation that it practically is
valueless TO the owner Of the land, so
be views the waste Of it with compare
tive indifference.
It is gratifying to know that there
is no wholesale destruction OF the ma
hogany forests A young timber has to
be preserved At one time it was the
law that no tree should be cut which
squared less than eighteen inehes-quite
a large tree as one will notice-but that
has become rather dead letter, and
trees smaller than this are cut every
day. Still there is some effort to pre-
serve the timber and even to do an APP
preciable amount Of reforestation The
trees are Of very slow growth, many
of the large trees, it is said, bearing evil
denee of being at least one thousand
years old, and when there is careless
ness or greed in cutting it means much |
to the future Of the mahogany business. |