The Holbrook news., 1911-04-21

when it comes are rolled back into the water and rafted and pulled out to the ships side, always a dangerous under taking, for the water is rough. Once beside the vessel the derricks are put to work and the logs are lifted over one by one, lowered with much difl- culty into the hold, and when enough logs have come aboard the vessel is ready.
 It may well be believed that mahog- any does not claim the respect in it's own land that 1t does in ours. There has been much comment on the fact that it is used for railroad ties in the lands across the gulf, and this may well be. An immense amount of 1t 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 he views the waste of it with comparative indifference.
 True mahogany is the only species of the Swietenia mahogani, and is dis tilctly a native of tropical America, but occasionally small specimens have been found in southern Florida, and similar tree, never reaching the height of the American relative, how ever, has been located in India. This swietenia has been planted in south ern Florida, southern California and parts of Mexico, but only as an orna- mental tree, however, because it is of such slow growth and requires for full maturity such natural surroundings, that for commercial purposes it would seem impossible of cultivation. 1t is a giant among even the giants of trop- ical forest. It towers sometimes to height of 100 feet The trunk alone is often 50 feet in length and 12 feet in diameter, and it divides into so many huge arms and throws the shade of its shining green leaves over so vast an extent of surface that more magnih cent or more useful object is not to be met with in the vegetable world. The precise period of its growth is not ac curately known, but as, when large. it changes little during the life of man, the time of it's arriving at maturity is probably not less than 200 years. The name "Swietenia" was given to mahog any in honor of the celebrated Baron von Swieten, physician to Maria Ther esq The early Spanish called the tree "Cedrela," a species not unlike the mahogany in many respects, and found also in about the same natural sur roundings. but the English mistook that name for cedar, applying it direct ly to mahogany, the result being that Spanish cedar is a term still heard occasionally or read without true un. derstanding in ancient books of travel and discovery along the Spanish Main.
 Only the best and biggest logs are exported; the smaller ones and the remnants of the sawed timber are uti lized as ordinary lumber on the spot for the construction of houses or the decoration of small vessels, so that in the tropics there can still be seen the solid mahogany furniture which originally made the wood so famous.
 London is the mahogany center oi the world. Here prices are set and the character of wood decided. Beauty of grain is, of course. the chief char acteristic, and that which at once ranks it above other woods either for constructive or decorative purposes; allied to beauty is figure or pattern and when the two are combined. ma hogany then becomes supreme. Sheets of mahogany of wonderful thinness can be cut from the parent log. with very little loss
 Selling mahogany logs by auction is still the habit in vogue in the great center-London-of the trade, a GUS tom inherited from generations of buy ing and selling. To these principal markets in England merchants come from every direction, for the pick oi the forests can always be found there. In fact, the best class of logs from tropical America are carried first tc England, many of them sold to manu- lecturers in the United States, to be finally imported through the Atlantic seaboard, thus having travelled twice across the ocean in their journey from the forest to the factory.
 It is gratifying to know that there is no wholesale destruction of the ma hogany forests. The young timber 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 dead let ter, and trees smaller than this are cut every day. Still there is some eff fort to preserve the timber, and even to do an appreciable amount of refor estation. The trees are of very slow growth, many of the large trees, it it said, bearing evidence of being at least 1000 years old, and when there is care lesness or greed in cutting, it means much to the future of the mahogany business.