MY TREE 51 



Such hard wood is valuable, of course, but often 

 it does not pay to try to get it out of the forest. 

 From my tree I could see that the yellow-flowering 

 trees did not grow close together. They were a 

 quarter of a mile or farther apart. In the north 

 we are used to woods that have nothing but oak 

 or maple or pine trees for miles, but here in the 

 tropics big trees of the same kind do not grow 

 together. 



The distances between trees make it impossible 

 to use the machinery with which we haul the big 

 trees of the northern woods. Usually only those 

 trees are cut which stand on hillsides close to 

 water, where the logs can be rolled downhill and 

 floated away. Even this method has its diffi- 

 culties. The thick undergrowth down to the 

 waterside must be cut away before the log can be 

 sent down the hill. When it reaches the water 

 the log is often so heavy that it sinks like iron. 

 Then some one must dive under it with ropes to 

 lift it and tie it to a raft of lighter wood that will 

 float and support it. 



Mahogany trees grow in Panama, but the 

 natives do not think its wood is nearly so good 

 or beautiful as that from some other trees. They 

 make rough furniture from it to sell to Americans, 

 and sometimes a few logs ard shipped to the 

 United States. 



Some of the less valuable wood is very light 

 indeed. The ''sentinel tree" (Fig. 62), one of the 



