HARDWOOD RECORD 



39 



fire fighting force there at present, but it is hoped that this will be 

 provided for by the next legislature. 



Under state measures the bulletin analj'zes the various laws 

 on the books providing for protection of forests against devasta- 

 tion by fire. There are only two specific laws at present covering 

 this question in North Carolina. One of them, compiled in 1777 

 and revised in 1905, prohibits the setting of fires without two days ' 

 notice to adjoining land owners and the other is intended to pre- 

 vent the setting of fires by mountaineers camping on the roadside. 



While the laws are fundamentally all right, the difficulty of 

 enforcing them makes them practically useless. Until such means 



have been provided as will insure its general application in sec- 

 tions that it is intended to cover, such legislation can be of little 

 practical value. The bulletin considers that the most important 

 step ia this direction is the provision of an extensive fire warden 

 system. Little or nothing can be accomplished without such a 

 system of patrol. 



The suggestions in the bulletin should be valuable not only to 

 laud owners in North Carolina, but to timber holders in other 

 states of that vast forest region of the South, where practically 

 analagous conditions prevail. 



' vriiit'>;:j:::;v;^'>\'j?;'' >^aAMt^iW!.wiitau a itt^^ 





Colombian Mahogany 



Circular IS.") recently issued by the Forest Service tells of the 

 characteristics of Colombian mahogany botanically known as 

 Cariniana Pyriformis, and its use as a substitute for the true 

 mahogany, Swielenia mahagoni. The circular is compiled by George 

 B. Sudworth and C. D. Mell, dendrologists, with a description of 

 the botanical characteristics of the Colombian mahogany by Henry 

 Pittier of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The object of the circular is to give users of cabinet wood 

 authentic information as to the best substitute for true mahogany 

 today. The Colombian mahogany is so called because it comes 

 from Colombia, but it is not even a member of the mahogany 

 family, from a botanical viewpoint. There is, however, a resem- 

 blance in the color and grain of the wood, which has made the 

 substitution possible. 



The bulletin says that it is impossible to learn just how long 

 Colombian mahogany has been imported into the United States. 

 Practically all of it now marketed is cut at points from 100 to 

 200 miles inland, where the trees grow on an average of thirtj'-six 

 inches in diameter, with tali, straight trunks clear for fifty feet. 



The great popularity of true mahogany since its first utilization, 

 about 1724, has caused its steady depletion. There is a consump- 

 tion of wood passing on the market as mahogany of about 40,000,- 

 000 feet a year, while the annual cut of the genuine mahogany is 

 only 18,000,000 feet. In all there are about twenty mahogany-like 

 woods being offered as true mahogany. 



Colombian mahogany was described botanically in 1874, but 

 accurate botanical description of the tree has never been published. 

 The bulletin says that the leaves are alternate and two-rank, and 

 the twigs slender and flexible. The leaves are dark green above 

 and paler beneath, and edged with fine teeth. The fruit is pear- 

 shaped and of a dark brown color. The seeds are three-angled and 

 broadly winged. 



The physical properties of the wood are analogous to those of 

 the true mahogany. It does not exhibit true annual rings of 

 growth, which is a characteristic of the true mahogany. 



When properly seasoned it does not warp, check or shrink, and 

 a great deal of the lumber has a beautiful figure and is susceptible 

 of a high polish. It is hard and heavy, weighing about forty-two 

 pounds per cubic foot ; is strong and tough, and in color and weight 

 compares almost exactly with genuine mahogany. The main objec- 

 tion to the lumber comes from those who actually work it. They 

 complain that it dulls saws and other tools quickly. A microscopic 

 examination showed that this is the result of an abundance of 

 crystals of calcium oxalate and calcium carbonate. 



The pores in the wood are conspicuous but not numerous, and 

 are evenly distributed, singly for the most part. 



The wood fibers are arranged in radial rows between the pith 

 rays and form the principal bulk of the wood. Broad, tangential 

 bands of these fibers alternate with obscure narrow lines of wood 

 parenchyma fibers. The wood fibers have pith walls and in con- 

 trast to the fiber of the true mahogany there are no cross par- 

 titions. The wood parenchyma fibers appear as fine, light-colored, 

 wavy bands, and with the pith rays form a mesh-like structure. 

 In the true mahogany, the wood parenchyma fiber for the most 

 part surrounds the vessels and pith rays. The cavities of the 

 wood parenchyma fibers of the Colombian mahogany are usually 

 filled with hardened, compact starch grains, which occur in a 

 great variety of form. The wood parench^-ma fibers of true ma- 

 hoganjr are similar but smaller. 



The wood parenchyma fibers are shorter than the wood fiber, 

 but of greater diameter. The pith rays appear under them aa 

 numerous, fine, uniform slightly undulating lines growing around 

 the larger vessels. The cavities of the pith rays are filled with 

 a dark brown mass, and their walls are marked with simple pits. 





Harrying Business 



In no uncertain terms the Board of Directors of the Lumbermen 's 

 Club of St. Louis, under date of Oct. 17, has issued a series of 

 preambles and resolutions, explaining the extraordinary harassment 

 of all divisions of the lumber business diiring the last four years in 

 connection with the widely extended eft'orts to enforce federal and 

 state anti-trust laws. The document truthfully recites that the re- 

 sult of these unjustifiable efforts has been to impair trade activity, 

 and to prevent a return of business prosperity to the like great 

 detriment of investors, employers and wage earners. 



The document is herewith reproduced in full : 



Whekeas, The nation-wide hardship so worlced is not the penalty busi- 

 ness should pay, necessarily or of right, because of law enforcement 

 against opipressive trusts and other combinations in unreasonable restraint 

 of trade : 



On the contrary, we believe, and here aver, that the evil consequences 

 to commerce and industry which have attended the anti-monopoly prosecu- 

 tions are directly chargeable to the perversion of wiiat slioiild have been 



an orderly, dignified and well-directed legal warfare to the most unworthy 

 purposes and personal ends ; that lawyer-politicians with a cureless itch 

 for continuing in office and with friendly working arrangements with 

 sensational newspapers, have largely supplanted the intelligent and con- 

 scientious prosecutor before court and commission — with the lamentable 

 results just indicated : and 



Whereas, In this anti-business crusade the lumber industry, especially 

 in the four years that have elapsed since the adoption by the United 

 States Senate of the Kittredge resolution, has been more persistently 

 and relentlessly attacked by state and federal prosecutors, and likewise 

 In the public prints and on the rostrum, than any other of the country's 

 great activities — and that, too, without substantial warrant in either fact 

 or appearance, for these reasons, among others : 



1. There Is not and never has been, we assert from our knowledge of 

 the lumber business in all Its branches and ramifications, and upon our 

 woid of honor as gentlemen, such a thing as monopoly control of prices, 

 production, or of the supply of raw material for manufacture, in the 



lumber trade. 



2. Nor Is there any probability of 'a combination of interests being 



effected on a scale and to an extent to threaten such control. Nothing, 



