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The Greenheart Industry 



BY C. D. iMELL, FOREST EXAMINEK, FOREST SERVICE 



A new foreign wood often meets with a very indifferent reception 

 in the American markets, and the enterprise of commission merchants 

 and timber dealers in their attempts to develop a market for a little- 

 known wood, is, as a rule, ill requited. Sometimes the fault lies in 

 not properly grading the wood that is shipped, but more often certain 

 kinds are selected which satisfy no present want and for which a de- 

 mand has first to be created. Although the wood itself may be intrin- 

 sically valuable, and 

 may subsequently 

 come into general 

 use, yet the process 

 of establishing a 



SHOWING THE STAGING ON WHICH THE 

 MAN WHO FKI.LS THE TREE HAS TO SUP- 

 PORT HIMSELF. IT IS SAID THAT THE 

 WOOD NEAR THE SURFACE OP THE 

 GROUND IS TOO HARD TO BE CUT WITH- 

 OUT BREAKING THE AXE, AND FOR THIS 

 REASON ALL TREES ARE CUT FROM SIX TO 

 EIGHT FEET ABOVE THE GROUND 



trade among large wood users who generally 

 have strong prejudices against a wood not well 

 known, is so slow that the original importer 

 almost invariably suffers loss. Deficiency of 

 information concerning the origin and prop- 

 erties of a new wood is another fertile source 

 iif injury to experimental importations. 



Timber is one of the most important 

 requisites in the arts and manufactures, 

 and although in these days iron and steel 

 have superseded wood for shipbuilding, and concrete is now largely 

 employed for wharf construction and various other purposes, yet wood 

 never can be entirely supplanted by its formidable rivals. Chief 

 among the uses requiring strong and durable woods are ship and 

 harbor construction. The native timbers that excel for these pur- 

 poses are becoming rather scarce, or cannot compete with certain new 

 woods that can be obtained from other countries. The various power- 

 ful tendencies of modern building and marine construction seem to 

 point strongly toward a larger consumption of foreign timber. 



One of the best timbers in the world which has recently attracted 

 some attention in this country for marine construction is the British 

 Guiana greenheart. While this wood has been known and used rather 

 extensively in England, Holland, and France during the last hundred 



years, it did not reach the American markets until a few years ago. 

 It is the opinion of those who are familiar with this wood that if it 

 were better known it would enter largely into construction in the 

 United States, especially in places where timber of a more perishable 

 character cannot be employed, and where, in consequence, some more 

 expensive material has to be substituted. A number of attempts 

 were made in the past to interest marine architects in this country 

 to specify greenheart for wharf and boat construction, but in nearly 

 all cases the high price of the rough hewn logs served to discourage 

 its use. 



It seems opportune to dwell briefly upon the character of the 

 greenheart tree, as well as upon the qualities and uses of the wood, 

 which is recognized abroad as the foremost 

 timber for marine construction. The con- 

 sideration of greenheart is especially appro- 

 priate at this time, because it is now being 

 used on the lock and dock gates on the 

 isthmus, which is the best means of bring- 

 ing it to the notice of those by whom alone 

 greenheart can be brought into still greater 

 repute. Greenheart cannot, therefore, be 

 regarded as an altogether new wood in this 

 country for marine structures. There are a 

 great many other uses to which it can be 

 jiut, and the sooner these become more gen- 

 erally known the greater will be its use. 

 The greenheart is one of the Nectandrae 



A GROUP OP GREENHEART TREES 



SO common to the 

 tropical parts of 

 South America. This 

 species, which is bo- 

 tanically known as 

 Nectandra rodinei 

 Schomb., is found 



A MASSIVE gkken[h:aim' tuke fall- 

 ing. THE LOG OBTAINED FROM THIS TREE 

 MEASURED 85 FEET IN LENGTH AND 14 

 INCHES SQUARED IN THE MIDDLE 



principally in the Guianas and eastern Venezuela. The largest and 

 most desirable trees grow just back of the alluvial deposits and in 

 the slightly elevated regions where the soil consists of clay and sand. 

 It is a large, evergreen tree, ranging from sixty to one hundred feet 

 in height, and from two to four feet in diameter. The mature trees 

 are without branches for three-fourths of their total height. They 



