HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



acre tract set in 1880 and cut for the third 

 time in 1900, produced 1,360 cords, or au 

 average of eighty cords per acre. The best 

 eucalyptus produces in twenty years a log 

 equal to that of an oak which has been 

 maturing for 200 years. Waste land planted to 

 blue gum may show in five years a handsome 

 grove ready to be cut for fuel. It has been 

 used very extensively for this purpose in 

 California, but is rapidly coming to be recog- 

 nized as far too valuable. The trees may 

 be propagated from seeds and they sprout 

 readily from the stump. One grower says 

 that from his 20U-acre grove, set largely in 

 soil too poor for crops, he can cut 1,000 

 cords of wood per year indefinitely, for which 

 he receives $2.50 per cord; this shows some- 

 thing of the financial profit with which the 

 tree may be cultivated. 



In trials of strength and endurance the 

 University of California finds ■ that green 

 wood grown on the campus and used in 

 automatic hammers, whose heads weigh 200 



SPRAY OF EUCALYPTUS FOLIAGE. 



pounds, is equal to hickory or oak, standing 

 up against the severest tests that are ever 

 required. Tests of seasoned timber are ex- 

 pected to produce even more favorable re- 

 sults. 



Although the tree is a valuable one to use 

 as windbreak, for shade, for ornament, for 

 sanitary purposes, for distillation, or to pro- 

 vide honey, it is as an important commercial 

 wood that it appeals mostly to lumbermen of 

 the West. With the lessening of hardwood 

 supplies in the eastern markets, prices have 

 advanced at corresponding ratio, and the 

 grades of timber offered have become lower. 

 Attention should be called to this tree as a 

 source of supply for hardwood to take the 



place of some of the rapidly disappearing 

 varieties of hickory and oak. Blue gum has 

 long been used in Australia, its native home, 

 as the chief hardwood timber ; it enters into 

 the construction of articles too numerous to 

 mention at length — barrels, farm implements, 

 vehicles, furniture, fences, paving, and par- 

 ticularly ships, piers and bridges. In Lon- 

 don and in Paris it has been used with ex- 

 cellent satisfaction as paving. In the Santa 

 Clara valley of California there is a large 

 institution which is devoted exclusively to 

 the manufacture of articles from eucalyptus. 

 It is unexcelled for insulator pins for heavy 

 transmission electric power lines, and the en- 

 thusiastic owner of the plant says that in 

 his fifteen years' experience with eucalyptus 

 he finds it as good as hickory for agricul- 

 tural implements and tools. 



The United States government finds the 

 possibilities of this wood so great that it is 

 taking up the work of reforestation in co- 

 operation with the state of California. That 

 the influence of forests upon rainfall is an 

 important one is a well recognized fact, and 

 in many parts of Arizona, Texas and New 

 Mexico, now arid and abandoned to jack-rab- 

 bits and cactus growth, the eucalyptus w'ould 

 be a saving force. Planted close enough, in 

 shallow- furrows, about ten feet apart for 

 example, the tree will take care of itself, 



so that it may be raised easily and cheaply, 

 bringing returns three times as quickly as 

 will any other hardwood. The tie and tim- 

 ber department of the Santa Fe is making 

 an extensive experiment with it, having 

 planted seedlings on 700 acres — part of a 

 9,000-acre ranch to be devoted to the pur- 

 pose. Eucalyptus was selected after careful 

 consideration, chiefly on account of its ex- 

 treme hardness and rapid growth. Seven 

 hundred acres will be planted each year for 

 twelve years, shortly after which the first 

 nursery will be ready for harvest. Thus each 

 succeeding year will see a new crop, and by 

 the time the round is completed, it 'is thought 

 the second cutting of the first tract may be 

 commenced. If successful, as it undoubtedly 

 will be, this gigantic undertaking will in- 

 sure a perpetual source of supply of railroad 

 timbers for the company, and will effect 

 great economy over present conditions. 



The pictures illustrating this article were 

 made and loaned the Hardwood Eecord by 

 John P. Brown, editor of Arboriculture, who 

 has undoubtedly done more to advertise this 

 oft-neglected and unappreciated tree than 

 anyone else in the country. Like other trees 

 growing in the open, the eucalyptus is prone 

 to ' spread and branch, while in plantations 

 or forest growth, it produces a tall, straight 

 trunk and fewer limbs. 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBEK 



WUliam Archibald McLean. 



(Sec Portrait Supplement.) 

 William Archibald McLean was born in 

 Thurso, province of Quebec, Canada, thirty- 

 nine years ago, of Scottish-Canadian ancestry. 

 The McLean family, or MacLean, as they 

 were known in their native country, were 

 loyal adherents of the ancient line of Stu- 

 arts, fighting under Montrose for King 

 Charles the First and under Dundee for King 

 James. They w'ere in the first line at Cul- 

 loden, under Bonnie Prince Charlie, in 1746, 

 when he made his gallant attempt to regain 

 the kingdom of his ancestors. When the 

 cause of the Stuarts was lost the MacLeans 

 left Scotland for America. 



Mr. McLean seems to have been predestined 

 for the lumber business. Years ago his grand- 

 father and father squared timbers and 

 floated them in rafts down the Ottawa 

 river to the St. Lawrence, through the 

 Laehine rapids to Quebec, where they 

 were sold for the European markets. 

 However, Mr. ilcLean began his career 

 when sixteen years of age, as clerk in 

 a country store in Canada, where the post 

 and telegraph offices constituted departments 

 of the business, and where everything from a 

 needle to an anchor was sold. 



His first venture in the lumber field was 

 with the L. A. Kelsey Lumber Company of 

 North Tonawanda, N. Y., prominent whole- 

 salers. Being determined to learn it in the 

 right way and master every detail, he began 

 at the very bottom of the ladder, handling 



XLVHI. 



lumber, and continued with the company for 

 three years, or until he felt he had acquired 

 a thorough preparation to enter the trade on 

 his own account. Then, with his brothers, 

 Hugh, Angus and Eobert, he became a mem- 

 ber of the Hugh McLean Lumber Company, 

 and was given charge of the buying of lum- 

 ber and the manufacturing end of the busi- 

 ness. He inspected the first car of lumber 

 ever shipped by that company. Fourteen 

 years ago he came West to buy timber and 

 spent a great deal of his time looking up 

 suitable purchases and contracting for the 

 output of many small mills. Mills were built 

 at Cloverdale, Bedford and New Albany, 

 Ind., and at Louisville, Ky. 



The Wood-Mosaic Flooring Company was 

 formed in 1883 by Charles E. Eider at 

 Eochester, N. Y. About six years ago this 

 company and the Hugh McLean Lumber 

 Company of Buffalo, jointly established a 

 sawmill and flooring plant at New Albany, 

 Ind., Mr. McLean having the management 

 of this branch, together with the other in- 

 terests of the Hugh McLean Lumber Com- 

 pany. The name of the Wood-Mosaic Floor- 

 ing Company was afterward changed to the 

 Wood-Mosaic Flooring & Lumber Company. 

 The business of this concern grew rapidly 

 and Mr. McLean decided to dispose of his 

 interest in the Hugh McLean Lumber Com- 

 pany, taking a larger interest in the nawer 

 concern. By doing this he acquired the large 

 band mill, yards and timber tracts of the 

 Hugh McLean Lumber Company at Louis- 

 ville, Ky. 



