MUSEUM OF PHILIPPINE FOREST PRODUCTS 

 By E. E. Schneider, Wood Expert, Bureau of Forestry. 



Early in 1909 the Bureau of Forestry established a museum of 

 forest products, located on the ground floor of a large building not 

 far from the Bureau offices. Comparatively small as were the 

 beginnings, the museum now contains collections that will com- 

 pare favorably in some respects with those of any similar museum 

 in the world. The chief motive of establishing the museum was 

 to acquaint the public with the fact that the Philippines contain 

 not only an immense variety of strong, durable and beautiful hard- 

 woods, but also enormous quantities of construction timbers that 

 take the place of the pine family of the temperate zone. During 

 the Spanish regime, and even in the early days of the American 

 occupation, it was scarcely suspected that the chief wealth of the 

 Philippine forests consists, not of the fancy hardwoods, but of 

 the cheaper woods which, on account of their abundance, can be 

 extracted by modern methods in great quantities and therefore 

 yield a much greater profit than the scattered trees of the high 

 priced species. 



A nucleus for the museum was already present. Years before, 

 collections had been made of logs of the well known species for 

 the purpose of identifying by means of botanical material the 

 commoner commercial species. Also, many of the common tim- 

 bers were already represented by planks either acquired by pur- 

 chase or donated by lumbermen, not to mention a great number 

 of miscellaneous specimens of manufactures of wood and of 

 minor products. As soon as the museum was opened, accessions 

 of all kinds came rapidly. During the latter part of 1909 a 

 special fund was obtained with which a collection of logs was 

 made that added some fifty or sixty species to the number already 

 represented, besides replacing with large specimens, containing 

 typical heartwood, many of the old ones that had been cut from 

 immature trees. Similarly, to the few planks of the well known 

 commercial species have been added many that were formerly 

 little or not at all known. Occasional logs are constantly being 



