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THE AGEICULTUKAL NEWS. 



October 7, 1916. 



THE FUTURE OF LOGWOOD. 



The following article from the West India Com- 

 mittee Circular on the position of the logwood industry 

 will be read with interest: — 



Among other industries which have come into their own 

 again since the outbreak of war is that of logwood. This 

 tree, known to scientists as Htematoxylon campechianutn, 

 furnishes the finest black, dark blue, and purple dye in 

 existence, which has the advantage, not possessed by aniline 

 dyes, of being absolutely 'fast.' That is to say, it neither 

 runs' nor 'fades.' Unlike indigo, which once flourished 

 in the West Indies but succumbed to careless cultivation 

 and foreign competition even before the manufacture of 

 aniline dyes, logwood has always enjoyed a market, though 

 by no means so large a one as its merits deserve. The chief 

 demand for the wood has in recent years been in America 

 and France, where home-made dyes are protected by tariff 

 against German .substitutes. It has been a.sserted that, with 

 the improvement in aniline blacks, the use of logwood for 

 dyeing gradually became restricted to finer qualities of black 

 cloths, stockings, etc., because of the greater facility in the 

 application of the said anilines. It may be that owing to the 

 prevailing habit in France, and to some extent in America, 

 of wearing the frac or dress-coat in the day-time on official 

 and matrimonial occasions, it is of the utmost importance that 

 those garments should be coloured by a dye which is proof 

 against the effects of the sun, and will not turn rusty and 

 seedy-looking in the daylight. The dye-using trades 

 in the United Kingdom have, on the other hand, shown 

 a preference for the cheaper, more easily applied, and inferior 

 German dyes, with disastrous results to themselves when 

 supplie.s thereof were unobtainable. It may here be explained 

 that logwood is widely distributed in Yucatan, British Hon- 

 duras, Jamaica, Haiti, and to a lesser extent in several other 

 West Indian i.slands. Originally the general practice was to 

 ship the wood itself— a costly business, especially in these 

 days, owing to its bulk— but for the past twenty years 

 a factory has been in existence near Spanish Town, where 

 the dye has been extracted from the wood and shipped either 

 as logwood extracl;)r haematoxylin crystals, while more recent- 

 ly a second factory, established by a combination of British 

 dye-works firms, has been .successfully producing the same 

 products at Lacovia, in St. Elizabeth. Some years ago the 

 makers of logwood extracts in Havre formed a combination, 

 but probably owing to the handicap of heavy freights on the 

 bulky raw material, the .Tauviica-produced extracts began to 

 compete successfidly with their products, even in their own 

 market. Even in the United Stales similar competition 

 must have been felt. The outcome appears to have been the 

 formation of a merger or trust whereby the businesses of the 

 two Jamaica factories, those of the French combine, and the 

 largest of the American concerns were united. One of the 

 results of this combination of interests was the practical 

 abolition of competition for the purchase of logwood in 

 Jamaica, and, we believe, in Haiti. The management of the 

 trust in Jamaica, buying alike for the local factories' recjuire- 



ments and for those of the States and France, has secured 

 a virtual monopoly of the trade, to the obvious disadvantage 

 of the growers. One eflfect of this was that, whilst it 

 became unprofitable „to cut the logwood growing at any 

 distance from the ports, that in close proximity to the sea 

 was becoming exhausted. When war led to the exclusion 

 of German dyes from the States as well as from the bellig- 

 erent nations, many moribund logwood dye industries sprang 

 into life again. As usual, the Americans were first in the 

 field to realize their requirements of the raw material, and 

 large contracts were quickly placed in Jamaica. When the 

 British dye manufacturers, who were outside of the Trust, 

 discovered that there was room for them also in the 

 enlarged demand for haematoxylin they experienced a 

 temporary difficulty in procuring supplies of wood from 

 Jamaica, and urged che Government to bring pressure 

 to bear on the Colonial Governments to take steps to 

 enable them to secure supplies without having to climb 

 for them — a proceeding which, we may say, the owners 

 of logwood trees properly regarded as not being 'cricket,' if 

 we may be pardoned for mixing metaphors. Prices, however, 

 which before the war had been as low as about £2 10s. per 

 ton — a price which made the cutting of trees at any distance 

 from the port of shipment unprofitable — had meanwhile soar- 

 ed to about £8, and as there appeared grave danger of 

 speculation by outsiders who had hitherto taken no interest 

 in dyewoods, which would have been very injurious to the 

 trade, the export of logwood and its products was temporarily 

 prohibited; but the embargo was soon raised when it was 

 found that the requirements of the British trade amounted 

 only to a matter of 7,000 tons, with which quantity they 

 were easily supplied. Apparently, however, this very action 

 served to stimulate the speculation it was hoped to prevent, 

 and prices advanced as high as £11 f.o.b., a somewhat ficti- 

 tious price, leading to some over-supply, which, coupled with 

 excessively high freights, and scarcity of sailer tonnage, has 

 temporarily depressed the market. It is to be hoped that 

 after the war, steps will be taken tD reorganize the logwood 

 industry and to place it on a sounder basis. This can best 

 be done by the estiiblishiueut of further logwood extract 

 factories in Jamaica and Belize, and though the existing 

 processes are 'secret' it should be within the powers of many 

 of our chemists to devise means for extracting the essential 

 product of the logwood tree for shipment in an economical 

 form. There must be no more peaceful penetration of 

 British Colonies by foreigners to the extent of controlling 

 what might be valuable industries and provided that security 

 against cut-throat competition is granted by the Mother 

 Country by preferential treatment, there is no reason why a 

 really flourishing logwood industry .should not be built up in 

 Jamaica, British Honduras, and el.sewhere. 



An interesting article concerning the utilization of oil- 

 seed for human food appears in The Times (Trade Supple- 

 ment) issued in September 191fi. It is pointed out that 

 Great Britain and France practically command the pre.sent 

 supply of oil-seed, but that in certain quarters the United 

 States is deflecting snpplies to that country where there are 

 indications of a growing industry in the manufacture of mar- 

 gerino. Special reference is maile to the deflection of copra 

 produced in the British Pacific Islands from Sydney to San 

 Francisco. The article concludes by urging that the allied 

 countries sh<nild take action to maintain their supplies of 

 raw material and develop industries by means of them. 



