HARDWOOD FORESTS OF SOUTHERN SOUTH AMERICA 253 



Big Quebracho LogS Gathered in "The Chaco." 

 It should be noticed that these logs have had the bark removed, and are serviceable either for tan- 

 ning extract or for sleepers. If logs are felled close to a factory, every particle of the wood may 

 be utilized for the extract. 



splendid polish. The Argentine rail- 

 way companies, which now finish a 

 considerable proportion of their really 

 fine ordinary, dining and sleeping cars, 

 have found quebracho to have notable 

 advantages over other woods for both 

 strengthening and decorative purposes. 

 Indeed, a demand for many other kinds 

 of native timber, hitherto scarcely con- 

 sidered for building and cabinet-making, 

 is spreading rapidly. It has been dis- 

 covered that such are more suited to the 

 climate and other conditions of the 

 country than the foreign woods hitherto 

 imported for these purposes." 



If Argentina shall awaken to the 

 necessity of soon protecting her splendid 

 northern forests against the ravages of 

 the money-mad corporations, she will 

 place herself among the progressive 

 nations. As the matter stands today, 

 over $10,000,000 worth of quebracho, 

 in logs and extract, is being exported — 

 about $1,000,000 more of timber than 

 of tannin. The logs are used chiefly for 

 railway sleepers, fence posts, paving 

 blocks and fuel, and of late years from 



sixty to ninety per cent, of the timber 

 exports have gone to the United King- 

 dom. Formerly Germany was the 

 largest market for the extract, but the 

 heavy import duties imposed on it have 

 almost barred it from that country. 

 For some years the United States has 

 been getting about fifty per cent, of the 

 tannin, whose exports amounted to 

 75,000 tons in 1912. 



The manufacture of the quebracho 

 tannin is conducted in numerous little 

 factories in the forests of the Chaco 

 region and the adjoining provinces of 

 Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero, and 

 as one ton of extract represents four 

 tons of logs, the freight profits of the 

 railroads are considerably reduced by 

 this transformation. The factories are 

 mostly located in the province of Santa 

 Fe. It is estimated that the annual 

 timber products of these three great 

 forest districts of the north are divided 

 as follows: Santiago, 3,600,000 railway 

 sleepers, 1,800,000 fence posts (chiefly 

 quebracho), and 310,000 tons of que- 

 bracho logs; Santa Fe, 490,000 tons of 



