HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



Foundations of Tkaue 



The West Indies have a solid foundation for enormous trade. 

 They have hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of products to 

 sell yearly, and consequently are able to buy liberally. The "United 

 States is their most convenient and valuable market; and we can 

 «xchange our merchandise with them. Their products are extensive 

 along certain lines, but are not greatly varied. Sugar, molasses, 

 coffee, tobacco, and certain fruits constitute their farm products, 

 which are wanted in this country. Many efforts have been made 

 there during the past four hundred years to diversify the output 

 of the farms; but nature seems to forbid. Horses become smaller 

 .with each generation; goats lose their vivacity and aggressiveness; 

 the sheep's wool changes to hair; and even the determined effort 

 once made to substitute camels for horses in Cuba failed because 

 the camels were killed by jiggers which infested their feet. 



The West Indian forests are everywhere deteriorating. Cut- 

 over lands do not generally come on again with good timber, but 

 with scrub and low plants. There are 3,350 flowering plants thus 

 far listed in Cuba alone. A casual observer is apt to greatly over- 

 estimate the size of timber and its quantity. Take pine in Cuba 

 and the Isle of Pines as an example. Fi'om a distance the stands 

 resemble those of Louisiana, but on closer approach, the trees are 

 found to lie small and poor, often only twenty or thirty feet high, 

 and fit only for fuel. 



The island of Haiti, including the republics of Haiti and Santo 

 Domingo, is popularly supposed to be richer in timber than any 

 other part of the West Indies. That may be true; but an examina- 

 tion of books of travel describing that country, and reports on 



economic statistics, give the impression that the timber resources 

 of Haiti are greatly overestimated in popular opinion. The famous 

 mahogany palace of Sans Souci, near Milot, nine miles from Cap 

 Haitien, was built between 1S07 and 1825 by King Henry Chris- 

 tophe. It is now in ruins. The quantity of mahogany in that 

 structure has been reported as almost unbelievable; yet, when the 

 palace has been subjected to plain measurements, it is found that 

 the Continental and Commercial Bank building in Chicago contains 

 more mahogany than the Sans Souci palace ever contained. 



The Lesser Antilles, extending in a curve from Porto Eico to 

 South America, are more famous on account of their volcanoes, 

 among which are Mt. Pelee and Soufrier, than for their forests or 

 agricultural resources. The largest island of the group is Trinidad, 

 and others of importance are Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, 

 and Barbados. 



.Jamaica, which is a corruption of the original Indian name 

 ' ' xa.\-maca, ' ' meaning ' ' land of streams, " is a good market for 

 American lumber, though it has numerous kinds of woods among 

 its mountain ranges. This island belongs to Great Britain, and has 

 an area of 4,207 square miles and a population of 807,000, ninety- 

 eight per cent of whom are negroes. 



Those who desire detailed information concerning the resources 

 and conditions of the various parts of the West Indies will be well 

 repaid by reading the following works: "The West Indies," by 

 Amos Kidder Pisk; "Cuba and Porto Eico, with Other Islands," 

 fcy Eobert T. Hill; "Porto Rico: Its Conditions and Possibilities," 

 by William Dinwiddle. The various consular reports relating to 

 this region, listed in the first article of this series, will give valuable 

 information concerning particular markets. 



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The Lowly Buckeye 



Isn't it about time a champion appeared for the lowly buckeye? 

 One by one the other woods of the country are being taken up and 

 exploited, but the buckeye is well-nigh friendless. There isn't a great 

 deal of it, to be sure, and no one knows how much is cut or used. A 

 glance at the census returns for 1912 shows some 14 million board 

 feet consumed, but the actual amount is considerably in excess of 

 that figure. 



The reason is not far to seek. There is no demand for buckeye 

 but there is for the sapwood of yellow poplar or tuUp-tree. The 

 simplest way, then, of disposing of buckeye is to sell it as "poplar 

 saps." The fact that one hears no complaint is in itself evidence that 

 the wood's merits cannot be so very much below that of the better 

 known species it counterfeits. 



Buckeye is not without merit. The wood is of practically the same 

 weight as basswood and yellow poplar, is soft, very fine and even of 

 texture and of a uniformly light color. It is difficult to split, the 

 fine fibers being interwoven and often curly. The medullary rays are 

 extremely fine and the pores are minute, not visible to the naked eye. 



It is evident that buckeye is a wood without figure, except what is 

 occasionally produced in a particularly wavy piece. This feature, 

 combined with its low clearabiiity, adapts it to the manufacture of 

 high-grade boxes. It can be printed on very readily, takes stain well 

 and thus lends itself to imitations of Spanish cedar, etc. The prin- 

 cipal use for buckeye boxes, however, is for candy, especially choco- 

 lates. It also goes into trunk boxes and sample cases. There appears 

 to be no good reason why its use should be so limited in this direc- 

 tion. It should make an acceptable substitute for basswood in many 

 instances. 



Buckeye finds some place in general construction, being used more 

 or less for casing, ceiling, cornice, door frames, partitions, sash, siding 

 and window frames. It is not durable in contact with the ground or 

 when exposed to the weather. 



Buckeye tinds some use in slack cooperage for heading, a place 

 which so many kinds of wood can fill to advantage. It is also used 



for veneer to some extent, especially for cores and for cross banding; 

 also for veneer baskets. There ought to be a good demand for buck- 

 eye veneer in all sorts of ply work. Some buckeye is mado into 

 excelsior but the total thus employed is small. 



There are three or four species of buckeye of tree size in the 

 United States, but only two, the yellow buckeye and the Ohio buckeye, 

 are of commercial importance. The woods are very similar in appear- 

 ance and properties. The yellow buckeye is the most common, grow- 

 ing in mixture with other hardwoods on good soil. The states report- 

 ing the largest cut are Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and 

 Kentucky. It is not uncommon for lumbermen to pass it by in the 

 woods, deeming it of too little value to bother with. In these days, 

 when no wood is without its special merits, there should be little occa- 

 sion to pass by as useless anything that is sound. 



The states reporting the use of buckeye in their wood-using indus- 

 tries are: 



Tonnessoo 2.S40.000 feet B. M. 



Kentucky 1.. 505.000 feet B. M. 



Ohio 931.000 feet B. M. 



Maryland 200,000 feet B. M. 



Michigan 100,000 feet B. M. 



Virginia 80,000 feet B. M. 



New York 61,000 feet B. M. 



Nortli Carolina 10,000 feet B. M. 



Buckeye is enough like cottonwood, basswood, tulip and willow to 

 be adapted for many of the uses to which these woods are put, except- 

 ing where considerable strength is required. Such uses are: boxes 

 and cases of all kinds, panels, drawer bottoms, clock eases, sugar and 

 candy buckets, fish kits, spice kegs, honey sections and boxes, piano 

 and organ keys, woodenware and novelties. It should also make good 

 interior finish for enameling or painting. These are but a few of a 

 hundred uses to which buckeye could be put to advantage. The fact 

 that the wood is somewhat refractory in drying is no serious objection 

 in these days of efi&cient drying apparatus and methods. 



