HARDWOOD RECORD 



CUTTING 



chopping in the spurs. This is a mistake — 

 an inexcusable practice by which people 

 ■who are in the business of taking mahogany 

 from the stump lose more than they arc 

 aware. There are several reasons why this 

 is true. In the first place, the fee or roy- 

 alty paid to the owners of the timber is 

 usually a stipulated price per tree, regard- 

 less of size, and it would cost no more to 

 take out an extra log than to leave the 

 great high stump standing in the woods as 

 a monument to the destructive achievements 

 of some thoughtless lumberman. There 

 would be another gain from the fact that a 

 butt log of any solid tree is more valuable 

 than a top log,- either for figured or plain 

 lumber or veneers. When trucking roads 

 have been chopped out and cleared off, 

 which is always necessary to reach every 

 tree, it would not be much more additional 

 expense to bring out all the merchantable 

 wood than to only take a choice log or two 

 out of the elean,»smooth part of the trunk. 

 In the aggregate it would very materially 

 increase the output from an entire ma- 

 hogany cutting. 



The making of these roads is one of the 

 most laborious and difficult features of a 

 logging proposition in the tropics. The 

 smaller trees must be cut low, leaving no 

 stumps in the way, which is very laborious 

 when we consider the density of the bush 

 and the almost inextricable tangle of lianas 

 and great crimped and fluted vines and 

 other creepers, forming a growth so matted 

 together that often after a tree has been cut 

 through it only partially falls and remains 

 hanging in a slanting position, supported b.v 

 the surrounding vegetation. This must all 

 be cut away before the leaning tree can be 

 brought to the prostrate position in which' 

 it must be placed before it can be handled. 

 It is said that the mahogany spurs contain 

 a peculiar figure of their own, which would 

 doubtless be beautiful and valuable if de- 

 veloped and introduced to the trade, and 



tlie matter would certainly boar investiga- 

 tion. 



The writer has given the subject of grub- 

 bing or low cutting of valuable timber much 

 attention and many practical tests, both as 

 to walnut and mahogany, and is of the 

 opinion that the nature and position of 

 these spurs is such that they could be 

 worked off with much less labor than gen 

 erall}' supposed and a wonderful saving 

 thus accomplished. Those great high stumps 

 are probably excusable in cutting redwood 

 or fir, but not in mahogany. The texture 

 of this wood is such that it cuts and chips 

 easily, and a couple of fairly good axmeu 

 with sharp tools ought to chop off these 

 spurs on a line with the body of the tree 

 and fell it almost as quick as by the waste- 

 ful method of high cutting, and also remove 

 the danger of checking the butt log: The 

 cavities between the spurs seem to extend 

 in under the tree, so that there would be 

 but little more than the tap root left to 

 support the tree after the spurs were cut 

 away, and this would be broken off or pulled 

 up by the immense strain brought to bear 

 u]iou it by the weight of the falling tree. 



.\nother great item of waste in getting 

 out mahogany is in slabbing the logs. No 

 matter how large, they are hewn down to a 

 square, not leaving a wane, as is the custom 

 in dressing walnut. This causes a loss of 

 from twenty-five to thirty per cent of the 

 timber, and in case the log should happen 

 to be figured the loss is still greater, as the 

 most prominently striped wood is near the 

 surface or bark. The log is harder to handle 

 in the square than round, and the only pos- 

 sible gain in slabbing them is that they 

 stow more closely, and a little greater ton- 

 nage can be placed in a certain amount of 

 space in the ship; but even these claims are 

 no longer tenable. The capacity of vessels 

 and transportation facilities have grown 

 till this practice is no longer necessary. In- 

 stead of being an economj-, it is now an 



extravagance. Each year logs are more and 

 more being shipped in the round, but the 

 waste of mahogany is still appalling, as iu 

 many cases fully 60 per cent of the body 

 of the tree is a total loss. 



J. V. Hamilton. 



New Hardwood Operations in Honduras. 



.Vn<ii(liim 10 authentic information from Celba. 

 Honduras, relative to the tlovelopment o£ that 

 country, it seems- that American capitalists are 

 playing an active pai-t and that one coterie of 

 them now lias in view the working of a conces- 

 sion of 8.000 acres of hardwood timber. On a 

 small area of this tract some 0,000 maliogany 

 trees have been located and marked for cutting. 

 In the event of the carrying out of the project, 

 the construction of twenty miles of railways 

 with spurs will be undertaken. Steamships will 

 also be chartered to transport the timber and 

 other products to ports of the United States. It 

 is also the intention to plant rubber, banana and 

 cacao as the land is cleared. 



The Vaccaro Brothers railroad was officially 

 opened for transportation traffic on April 11, ami 

 is now operating under regular schedule between 

 Celba and Salado. Ceiba's release from land 

 isolation is now apparent in the commercial 

 activity caused by the many daily visitors wbu 

 come from the various towns located along thr 

 Ihirty-flve miles of completed road. 



The track is of three-foot gauge, 40-pound 

 steel rails, creosoted American pine ties and sub 

 stantially ballasted. The roadbed passes over 

 several American girder bridges, and all material 

 used in the superstructure and rolling stock is 

 of American manufacture. There are at present 

 three 30-ton locomotives, sixty freight and sev 

 oral pn<:'!''!r:''r mro in ii-p, while additional equip 

 moiit \\\i\ 1' iiKiili :i . . i;.lii iiiiis demand. 



It is I Im' iiiiriiin.il 1 i.'t a "loop" arouuil 



Coiba. a iniri ni ulinli "in lie built along tbr 

 beach, and Iberchy enable the planters to rii- 

 charge their cargoes from the train to lighti i - 

 direct. This method will effect an importan 

 economy to fruit shippers and greatly assist luni 

 bcr development. As a result of this road tln' 

 development of banana cultivation is greatly in- 

 creasing, and the shipments from this port will 

 doubtless double the present 4,iiiio.ooo Ininehes 

 that are annually exported. 



