l^ 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



until it is half rotten. What it needs is a roof, and it will be found 



that few forage crops will pay more handsomely for the roof that 



covers them. 



The field crops of the United States run into billions of dollars a 



year. Practically every ton of the miscellaneous products that make 



up the total should be sheltered from the weather as soon as it is 



harvested. The table which follows summarises thesfe crops and gives 



their estimated value for a single year. 



Vaice of Certain Field Crops ix the United States foe 

 THE Year 1909 



Corn S;i,43S.5.'i3.909 



Hay and forage 824.004.877 



Cotton 703.619.303 



Wheat 6.57.6.56,801 



Oats 414,697,422 



Barley 92.4.58,571 



Rve 20.422.812 



Blickwheat 9..^30,.592 



Misccllan>ous 1,328,255,713 



Total $5,487,000,000 



As stated in a foregoing paragraph, it is not known how much 

 of the total annual crops in this country is lost on account of decay 

 due to weather exposure. It has been estimated as high as ten per cent. 

 It is unquestionably that high in some regions, but probably under 

 it in others. If it is placed at no more than five per cent, it means a 

 deplorable loss. It would exceed .$250,000,000 a year. 



Figures do not mean much unless they are applied. That sum 

 (saved every year) would build a dozan dreadnaughts ; it would pay 

 for the Panama canal in two years ; it would provide, three times over, 

 the sum asked for the Xewlands bill to improve and control all the 

 rivers of the United States; it would build eight splendid country 

 roads from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



The farmers of the United States can save most of this waste by 

 building more barns and shedroom for storing crops in the dry. That 

 is enough money to buy (at mill value) one-third of the lumber cut 

 in the United States. 



After all the theory is squeezed out of this proposition, it is evident 

 that one of the safest and surest means whereby the farmers can 

 increase their prosperity is to buUd more barns for housing their grain 

 and forage crops. The savings in a few years will suffice to build the 

 barns. It can hardly be expected that the reform will be taken up 

 along the whole line at once and executed promptly. It will take time; 

 but it is certainly a field for economists to exercise their talents. 

 Farmers' institutes listen to lectures on nearly every other topic of 

 saving and conservation except that of more roofs. There are talks 

 on soil erosion, the succession of crops, soil leaching, the fixation of 

 nitrogen, fertilizers, and scores of other interesting and highly useful 

 measures; but too little attention is paid to saving the crop after it is 

 raised. The best timothy hay in the country will rot just as soon, if 

 left in the rain, as the coarsest crow's foot or Johnson grass, and 

 fodder of the finest strain of pedigreed corn will deteriorate fully as 

 fast in the field as the poorest specimens grown on beech flats and 

 huckleberry ridges. 



Improvement of crops is a great work, but saving the crops after 

 they are raised is no less important. Here is where the farmer should 

 form aa alliance with the lumberman. He should study the roof ques- 

 tion as carefully as he studies the care of soils or the improvement of 

 grains. In no other way can he put money into his pocket so surely au<l 

 so safely, and no other person is so well equipped to help him do it as 

 is the lumberman. 



vi :ffli;itaiim-. »-tiiiOTtOTaim^tit^>iWii j^ 



"^^ V^est African Mulberry Woods -^ 



The West African mulberry (Chloropliora tcnuifolia) is very 

 abundant in the forests of St. Thomas and Togo in West Africa, 

 where it grows to enormous size. Its native name is amoreira, which 

 is the Spanish or Portuguese name for mulberry. The colored 

 people of West Africa call it mueumba. The tree is found over the 

 entire island of St. Thomas, to the elevation of 2,500 feet, where 

 fully developed trees are sometimes one hundred twenty feet in 

 height and about seven feet in diameter at the base; the average 

 height is about eighty feet and the average diameter about four feet. 

 So large are these trees that the natives make out of the trunks 

 large boats, some of which have dimensions of 50 by 4I/2 by 5% feet. 

 One boat in particular, measured by a recent traveler in West 

 Africa, was forty-two feet long and a little over five feet in 

 height. This boat had provision for twelve oars. 



The wood is very hard and durable and reminds one of the Bra- 

 zilian wood known under the name of vinhatico (Echirospcrmum 

 rliplicum), used so extensively in naval construction. The specific 

 gravity of this wood is .576, which is somewhat higher than that 

 of our white oak. In St, Thomas and on the mainland of West 

 Africa this wood is usually converted into boards which are suited 

 especially for construction work and for interior finish, flooring, and 

 carpenter work. It is moderately light, easily worked, and not liable 

 to rot. The wood does not burn very readily; a board may be laid 

 upon a fire and a hole will be burned through without a flame. In 

 its green condition the wood has a light color, but after it is 

 thoroughly seasoned it becomes yellowish-red, with dark wavy streaks. 

 These streaks become more prominent after tlie wood is polished. 

 It is very durable when subjected to the weather, and it is said to 

 be entirely free from the attacks of white ants, which are so 

 destructive to wood in the tropics. The bast or inner bark of this 

 tree produces a latex, which is used for making linen waterproof. 



Another species of this genus is the Chloroptiora excelsa, which 

 is a very common and valuable tree in West Africa from Togo to 

 Angola. It has been used from time immemorial by the natives 

 and the colonists as a building material. Like that of the mueumba 

 the wood is at first white or pale yellow, but upon exposure becomes 



darker and exhibits numerous irregular or wavy d.ark lines. It is 

 hard, durable, and entirely free from tliQ attacks of white ants. 

 The tree is found not only in West Africa, but botanical explorers 

 have seen it in Central Africa as well, and it is said to be plentiful 

 in Usambara, in German East Africa. The natives of Angola call 

 this tree mucamba, or camba, but in the trade it is known as roko, 

 iroko, or odum. The trees is easily recognized in the forests by its 

 great height, because it is frequently seen one hundred twenty-five 

 feet high and from six to ten feet in diameter near the base. The 

 trunk is cylindrical and has a rather smooth gray bark. It is 

 nothing unusual to find trees with clear boles for sixty or more feet. 

 Timber cut from these species has been exported only in small 

 quantities to Europe, generally under one or the other of the two 

 comprehensive trade names of W'cst African mahogany or West 

 African cedar. Thus far such shipments liave met with rather scant 

 encouragement in the English markets. The good properties are 

 well recognized and appreciated, however, in West Africa, and it 

 will be a matter of only a few years when both of these woods will 

 have a well established market in Europe. As soon as a good demand 

 for this timber arises in the large markets the supply will be found 

 to meet almost any call made on it. L. L. P. 



Good, hard work is one of the best things in (he world to make a 

 man wholesomely happy, and whether work is shouldered as a burden 

 or taken to as a pleasure, is more a matter of whether it is taken 

 up voluntarily or whether one is driven to it than anjihing else. 



A lot of furniture wood may come in from the Philippines, but 

 it hasn't come yet. Eeports for last fiscal year show that wc im- 

 ported cabinet woods from there to the value of $25,264, and during 

 the same time we exported to them logs and round timber to the 

 value of $31,287, to which we added lumber, shocks, etc., to tho 

 value of $326,610. 



The fellow who has been theorizing on the subject of making thin 

 hardwood flooring with a veneer saw was surely either hard up for 

 subject matter, or else he is a stranger to the work that can be done 

 with a modern band resaw. 



