October 25, 1921 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



35 



"Elephints A-Pilin' Teak" 



ISri- jKiiii- :;r, fur iHioiiiulimix) 



Task of Getting Teak Logs Out of the Burma Jungles and Down to the Saw 



Mills Is a Long and Tortuous One 



ALL NIGHT LONG a southwest monsoon, wet with the breath 

 of Bengal Bay. had raged through the parched Patkoi hills, 

 bending the tall bamboo till it leaned like a Burma virgin low at 

 the feet of Buddha; shaking the tall teak tree until its golden heart 

 cracked with fear. The tropic Vulcan had shot his thunder bolts 

 into the dark belly of the tropic sky until it was ragged and gutted 

 of its rain. Where twelve hours before the dust had Iain thicker 

 than the hoof of an elephant and the spear-head leaf of the teak 

 had rattled and rolled in a lazy breeze, a tbrreht now leaped and 

 shook its shaggy yellow mane, mad for the rush through the 

 riven rocks down to the waiting arms of the Irawaddy, past Man- 

 dalay and the wharves of Rangoon to the far salt sea. 



The rain ceased, the wind moaned low and the dawn struggled, 

 dull and weak and w^et out of the sombre east. There arose a 

 babel of raucous sounds, iron beating upon brass, the hysterical 

 gutturals of Indo-China men, the brusque monosyllables of Anglo- 

 Saxon sahibs. Out of the compound the mahouts dash astride the 

 necks of their elephants, sinking deep their goads into the leathery 

 flesh of these huge mounts. Stung with the sharp keen pain of the 

 goads the elephants trumpet until the hills quake and give back 

 sound in fear. Torches, held in the uplifted hands of half-naked 

 coolies, leaping like demons, waver and flare upward, weirdly 

 illumining the writhing trunks of the tortured elephants. 



In far Burma the teak log drive is on! All through the long dry 

 winter and the scorched, leafless spring, when the air lay still and 

 dead with heat, the crews of the Bombay Burma Trading Company 

 had toiled in the tfeak forests, tumbling dow^n the huge trees, trinr 

 ming them and dragging them, with stout chains hitched to ele- 

 phants, into the dusty creek beds. There the teak logs had waited 

 tot this summer downpour that had filled the creek bed and made 

 the torrent that would send them down toward the navigable rivers 

 and the shipping ports. There is need for haste now^, because these 

 tropical rains are sudden and ephemeral things that come and pass 

 like the anger of a w^himsical god. That is why the crews of 

 elephant i, mahouts (drivers) and coolies w^ere hustled out at 

 dawn by their British bosses. The teak logs w^ere jamming in the 

 creek, a:i they alw^ays do, and it was necessary to break the jam 

 and send them scudding along their way before the flood ran ahead 

 and left them. 



Shouting at the top of their voices the mahouts drive the huge 

 beasts into the flood. The elephants know their work well and 

 with tusl and trunk they lift and pull at the logs until the key log 

 is loosened and the masses of timber begin their flow. 



A Long and Tortuous Job 



The tc sk of getting the teak timber out of the forests of Burma, 

 India, is a long and tortuous one. To this fact a representative 

 of the Bombay Burma Trading Company, who recently came to 

 this courtry to confer with Busk & Daniels, New York City import- 

 ers of Rangoon teak, will testify. This gentleman, a Mr. Taylor, 

 w^ho spent a number of years in the teak forests of Burma and 

 Siam, described the methods employed. The logging practice that 

 prevails n the Occidental countries will not do in these East Indian 

 forests, Ke said. The teak trees grow^ scattered among others of 

 little con" mercial value and often at great distance from one another 

 in the foothills of the mountains of northern and western Burma. 

 Moveable dragging engines, such as tractors, can not be used in 

 these hill forests, because they would spend so much time changing 

 position that there would be practically no result from their use. 



Recourse, therefore, must be had to a native logging engine, the 

 elephant, or hathi, as he is known to the East Indian. The elephant 

 combines capacity for crossing the most difficult country with the 

 weight necessary to shift heavy timbers. 



The first step in the extraction of teak is the girdling. This 

 means cutting a deep ring through the bark and sapwood at the 

 trunk of the tree for the purpose of stopping the flow of sap. The 

 tree then stops growing and dies. Thus dead, it is permitted to 

 stand in the forest for two or three years before felling, to enable 

 the wood to season. This is done because the teak wood will not 

 float green and much of its journey to the sawmills is to be by 

 water, down the torrential creeks to such rivers as the Irawaddy 

 and Salwin, which flow past large towns and down to the coast ot 

 the Bay of Bengal. This seasoning is very thorough, because the 

 standing tree is touched by the air upon all sides and is subjected 

 to the influence of dry breezes that blow throughout the year except 

 for the occasional summer rains. 



After the tree has passed through its period of seasoning and 

 has been stripped of its limbs and perhaps squared by the natives 

 with broad axes, the work of the elephants begins. The elephants 

 are harnessed to the felled trees with chains, by means of which 

 they drag them to the nearest floating creek. The logs are allowed 

 to accumulate in these creek beds until the rains come. The 

 elephants weigh three or four tons and consequently can drag 

 heavy logs up and down hill, through thick jungles of bamboo 

 and other rank tropical growth, until the creeks are reached. 

 Sometimes the logs are dragged on low carts, which have been 

 loaded by the elephants themselves. But usually the number ot 

 logs to follow any given route does not justify the making of a 

 track and the necessary bridges for the passage of carts. 



Calves Preclude Efficiency 



Both sexes of elephants are used to handle the teak, but the 

 females are often impeded in their work by mischievous calves 

 running around them from which they cannot be separated for 

 several years after birth. Elephants are of great value, but cost 

 very little to feed, as they are generally turned loose each night 

 to forage for themselves. Sometimes, however, these great beasts 

 get into a villager's banana patch and a claim is made on the 

 teak loggers for a ruined banana patch. 



Once delivered in a creek bed the log has to float the rest of 

 its way to the sawmill. But the jouin'-y is not a simple one. Rises 

 in these creeks are short and torrential. The logs either strand 

 or stack up into what we call "jams" in the northern woods of 

 .America. To keep the logs moving while the water lasts the ele- 

 phants must again be resorted to, being ridden into the water, 

 where with their trunks and tusks they roll the stranded logs into 

 deeper water or break up the stacks. Only bull elephants can do 

 this work, as the females have no tusks. Because of this congeni- 

 tal difference the males are worth much more to a teak logger, 

 always provided they do have tusk-, for some males have but one 

 and others none. 



After the log is started on its journey down a ci3ek years may 

 pass before it finally reaches a main river where there is floating 

 water for several months in each year. Even in the main rivers, 

 particularly in the upper reaches, logs are often left stranded at 

 the end of the summer rains and have to be rolled or dragged back 

 jntg the channel, The logs float down unattached through the 

 {Continued on page 48) 



