August 20, 1915. 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



respoudents' Hues. Lee ^^■ilson & Ctt. aceordingly took up its rails d<'- 

 sciilied and has since sliipped from 150 lo .'SSS cars of lumlier annually 

 oviT i'fsp<indonts* lines to the destinations involved. 



Till' rates proposed would increase tlu* present rates o cents to Evans- 

 ville and Louisville, 2 cents to Cincinnati. Tbe witness for ttie Frisco 

 testified lliat rales from iuml)er-producin'_' points west of the Mississippi 

 i-iv«r 10 Kvansville, Louisville, and Cincinnati are normally on the basis 

 of the lowest combination on Memphis or Thebes, and that the present 

 rates were established as exceptional rates to "meet the competition of the 

 liarffe lines. The rates are said to be ni.normally low and provocative of 

 complaints from lumber dealers shipping; frfini )niints in southeastern 

 Missouri. They will be used also, the same witness added, in comparisons 

 to force down other rates and the Frl.s.:!> can better afford to surrender 

 the liusiness moving from the points of origin to the destinations involved 

 to the barge lines, which are still in operation, than run the ris|{ of general 

 reductions from points in southeastern Missouri. Comparisons of lumber 

 rates from northern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri points to the 

 destinations involved were submitted, intended to show that the present 

 rates are abnormally low and that the proposed rates are reasonable. 

 .\11 the rates compared are higher than the rates In issue, and in most 

 instances apply to shorter distances. 



I'rotestants insist that there has been no change in conditions since 

 ^lay. inii:. to warrant the increase proposed, and that the lumber business 

 is so depressed that the traffic can not bear higher rates. They deny that 

 the basis of rates from points west of the .Misissippi river to Ohio river 

 crossings is Mississippi river combination, citing througli rates from points 

 in eastern Arkansas lower than any .gateway combination. They concede, 

 howi'ver, that the river combinations form the general basis of rates to 

 points in Central Freight Association territory. 



Ipon the record we find that respondents have Justifled the proposed 

 cancellation of the joint rates involved, and the suspension orders will be 

 vacated. 



Miscellaneous Cases 



Hearinfjs have been assigned by the coniniissiou as follows: 



St. Louis, Sept. 25. — The matter of rates on cooperage slock to St. Clair. 

 Jiich., and the case of the Warren Stave Company versus the St. Louis, 

 Iron .Mountain vie Southern. Examiner Wilson will preside. 



SI. Ixjuis. Sept. 28. — The case of Ihe i'nion Sawmill Company versus 

 th<' St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern will he heard by Examiner 

 Wilson. 



I'ittsburgh, Si-pt. 27. — The case of Palmer & Semans Lumber Company 

 versus the Haltimore & Ohio will be heard by llxaminer Mattlngly. 



A coniidaint has been filed by the Ohio Valley Tie Company, of 

 Louisville, Ky., against the Louisville & Nashville. Eates on ties 

 from points in Kentucky and Tennessee to Louisville on through ship- 

 ments to points nortli of the Ohio river are attacked by the lumber 

 comjiany as being unreasonable and discriminatory. More than $4,000 

 is claimed as reparation. 



In .behalf of John B. Ransom & Co., the Baker-Jacobs Company, 

 the Dunlap Lumber Company, Farris Hardwood Lumber Company, 

 and Lieberman, Loveman & O'Brien, the Nashville Lumbermen's 

 Club has filed a complaint against the Louisville & Nashville claim- 

 ing discrimination in the matter of the weight of standards. By 

 failing to provide in its transit arrangements for the deduction for 

 standards strips and supports, the company permits an extensive and 

 particularly discriminatory influence against Nashville lumbermen, 

 it is alleged. 



Another complaint of more than usual interest was that of Bird- 

 Matthews Lumber Company of Helen, Ga., and the William B. Morse 

 Lumber Company, Rochester, N. Y., versus the Gainesville & North- 

 western Railway. The Morse company is interested heavily in tim- 

 berlanda in the vicinity of Helen, Ga. Various far-reaching applica- 

 \ious of unreasonable rates are alleged. 



A return of a shipment of moulding without authorization is the 

 basis of a complaint made by L. A. Strobel Company, of Cincin- 

 nati, against the Illinois Central. In June, 1914, the Strobe! com- 

 jiany consigned the load of moulding to a customer in Costa Eica. 

 The shipment was delivered to the Illinois Central which routed it 

 via New Orleans. Unbeknown to the lumber company, a quarantine 

 had been de.dared by Costa Rica against New Orleans, due to the 

 presence of plague in the Louisiana metropolis. Without communi- 

 cating with the consignor, the railroad company returned the ship- 

 ment to Cincinnati at full freight rates. The company protests that 

 it should be reimbursed for this freight charge as it could have dis- 

 posed of the mouldings in New Orleans. 



The Arkansas-Memphis rates again are attacked by Arkansas pro- 

 ducers. The Wisconsin & Arkansas Lumber Company and the Arkan- 

 sas Land & Lumber Company have filed complaints against the St. 

 Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, in which they claim the local rate 

 from Malvern, Ark., to Memphis should be ten cents. A fourteen- 

 cent rate now is being collected. 



Woodworking Machinery in Russia 



.\ report from Henry i). Baker, United States commercial attache 

 at Petrograd was published in the Commerce Report of August 19 

 by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, I). 

 <J., dealing with prospects of selling sawmills and other woodworking 

 machinery in Russia. Manufacturers in a position to engage in 

 that trade would be interested in Mr. Baker's report. It points out 

 numerous openings for sale of American machines ranging from 

 complete sawmills down to cross-cut ' saws. The timber resources 

 of Russia are very great. The government holdings of forested 

 laud aggregate 947,686,763 acres, and private holdings, total one-third 

 as much more. In most instances the tools and machines in use are 

 of the crudest kind, scarcely equal to those in use in America fifty 

 years ago. The Russian lumbermen are in a receptive state of 

 mind. They are finding out that poor apparatus places them under 

 a serious handicap in the lumber business. They do not make manv 

 of their own tools and machines but have bought them chiefly from 

 Germany and Sweilen. Since the war began American machines, 

 especially saws, have found a good sale in Russia and their superiority 

 to the out of date kind formerly used is easily seen. The time 

 is opportune for a vigorous campaign to push American machinery in 

 that country. 



Two Important Trees of Tropical America ' 



Kakaralli is a local name given to several important forest trees 

 in tropical America. In British Guiana they are distinguished in the 

 forest as the white and the black kakaralli. The former is known 

 by botanists as Lecythis ollaria L. and the latter has not been botanic- 

 ally identified. The white kakaralli is a well-known tree on account 

 of its seeds which come into this country under the name of sapucaya 

 or zabucajo nuts. These so-called nuts, which are in reality seeds, 

 are borne in a cup or pod of large size and excessive hardness with 

 the mouth turned downward, and closed by a circular lid, like that 

 of a pyx. These large capsules are from four to eight inches long 

 and from three to six inches through, and are so hard that the Indians 

 use them as drinking cups, pots, and dishes. Portugese turners make 

 boxes and other small articles out of these cups. The kernel or 

 edible portion of the seed, of which there are about thirty in each 

 cup, has a pleasant flavor. When ripe the seeds fall out if the hard 

 goblet-shaped capsules are struck. The fruit ripens once a year, in 

 midwinter; and in taste and excellence the kernels are equal to those 

 of pistachia nuts. 



The variety known as black kakaralli is in almost every respect 

 similar to the white kind, especially in so far as the kind and 

 quality of the nuts and the timber are concerned. Both of these trees 

 are distributed throughout Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, 

 and northern Brazil. They find their best development in Brazil, 

 where the bulk of the sapucaya nuts are obtained. In British Guiana 

 Ihey are found most abundantly along the Essequibo river. In the 

 slightly elevated or hilly lands of the Northwest district there are as 

 many as thirty-five kakaralli trees per acre over six inches in diameter. 

 They form a large tree, often attaining the height of one hundred feet 

 and over two feet in diameter. The average height is about eighty 

 feet and logs sixteen inches square, free of sap, can be obtained. 

 The boles are generally tall, straight, and cylindrical for more than 

 one-half the total height of the tree. The shape and size of the stems 

 would make this material suitable for spars, but the wood is too heavy. 



The wood is very hard, heavy (about sixty-four pounds per cubic 

 foot), strong, exceedingly tough, resists decay in an unusual degree, 

 and is said to be immune to sea worms. It has a light-brown colored 

 heartwood and nearly white sapwood, a peculiar smell, and is very 

 close and often cross-grained, rendering it rather difficult to work. 



