1100 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



dinary conditions can be made a very profitable undertak- 

 ing on most of the denuded or otherwise unutihzed areas 

 in the West Indies and the mainland of tropical America. 

 In common with all the other species of Ccdrcla, it may 

 easily be propagated by seed or by cuttings and layers. 

 It produces large quantities of seeds at a comparatively 

 earlv age. and in locations where the soil is suitable the 

 young trees spring up naturally in great abundance. 



The cigar-box tree is usually of considerable size, 

 generally from SO to 100 feet high, but in some localities 

 it attains a height of 125 feet, \\dien it arrives at ma- 

 turity it is one of the monarchs of the forest, often 

 measuring 4 or 5 feet through above the root swelling. 

 Occasionally trees are found in the forest that measure 

 9 feet in diameter 10 feet above the ground. As do prac- 

 tically all trees of the mahogany family, the trunks de- 

 velop enormous buttresses which extend 8 or 10 feet 

 above the surface of the ground. Above this root swell- 

 ing the stem is usually round, straight and cylindrical, 

 especially in locations where the trees have grown up in a 

 forest or are surrounded by other lofty trees. The Ijarlv 

 of the trunk is at first smooth and gray, but later in life 

 it becomes rough and takes on an ashy-bruwn color. 

 The trunk supports a massive crown which spreads 

 gracefully over an immense area. It is usually broad and 

 flat-topped, especially in the open ; in the dense forest it 

 develops a more or less cone-shaped crown. The small 

 twigs give rise to beautiful foliage, bright, glossy and 

 light, clinging so long to the sjiray as to make it aluKJjt 

 evergreen. The flowers are pale yellow and arranged 

 in large drooping panicles resembling those of the well- 

 known Chinaberry tree. The fruit is a dry capsule, 

 brownish in color, and a])out the size of a large plum. 



Cigar-box wood generally comes on the market in the 

 squared conditii:in and free from sap; the latter is usually 

 very narrow in old trees and of a reddish-white color. 

 The heartwood is uf a cinnamon-brown color. It is 

 moderatelv light in weight, soft, strong, very durable in 

 contact with the suil, works and sjilits easily, is suscejitible 

 to a high polish, shrinks and warps very little, has a 

 very pleasant odor which it retains indefinitely, and 

 possesses a bitter taste. The wood contains a gummy 

 substance or semi-resinous juice, which tends to preser\'e 

 it from attack of fungi, white ants and marine borers. 

 The quality of the wood \aries much according to the 

 situation in which the trees grow. The wood obtained 

 from trees grown on rockv upland soil and exposed to 

 dry conditions is usually much harder, darker and sus- 

 cejjtible of a higher poli>h than that from low, moist 

 situations. In Trinidad the trees with hard and heavy 

 wood are kjcally known as balata cedar, because the 

 bark of the trunk is nearly similar to that of the balata 

 tree. 'i"he Cuban growth is usually regarded as the best 

 for the majority of uses to which cigar-box wood is 

 put. The wood produced in wet or periodically flooded 

 regions, as is the case in parl< of southern Mexico and 

 in the Amazon River valley, i- very soft and frei|uentlv 

 develops an excess of gum in its pores. Upon exposure 

 to heat and light this gum ditTu>es in irregular spots de- 



preciating the value, of the wood. Careful buyers of 

 cigar-box material reject wood having this defect. 



The importance of opening new territory which has 

 not yet been culled of its cigar-box wood has long been 

 felt. Several decades ago large quantities of this wood 

 were to be found in easily accessible places in Cuba, 

 Jamaica and Trinidad and along all the rivers in southern 

 Mexico and Central America, but with the constant de- 

 mand for high-grade cigar-box wood the bulk of the best 

 trees have been cut and shipped. At present nearly all 

 the available timber of this species is far removed from 

 the larger streams which are the onlv means for trans- 



STL.Xir III- .\ I'laJAR ISO YEARS ol.D 



This tree was cut on 'rrinidad Island in 1912 where it is best known 

 as Ralator cedar hecause the bark is somewhat similar to that of 

 the lialata tree. The quality of the wood varies nuich according 

 to tile situation in which the trees grow. 



porting the logs to the shipping ports. As a result of 

 this there has been an advance in price of cigar-box wood 

 which many regard as considerable: but as a matter of 

 fact, it re])resents no more than the increased cost of pro- 

 duction including the increased cost of transportation. 

 The ])ermits to cut this wood cost more than they did 

 formerly and the a\,iilable trees are further back from 

 the streams and often extensive improvements must be 

 made to get the logs out at all. Labor costs more than 

 ir did ten or twenty years ago. 



There is a pronounced feeling among many of the 

 leading exploiters that still higher prices could be ob- 

 tained for this valuable wood, upon the score of its in- 

 trinsic merit. It has a greater strength and is incompar- 

 ably better than any other, with an equal degree of soft- 

 ness, for making cigar boxes. It will be seen that in this 

 use a matter of 10 or 20 cents more a cubic foot, while 

 apparently a large increase in price, would in fact be so 



