AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 81 



INDIA. 



NATIVE WOODS. 



The most notable native woods for timber are the teak (Tectona 

 grandis) and the sal (Shorea robusta). The teak is indigenous to both 

 peninsulas of India. In certain localities the supply may be considered 

 inexhaustible. 



Teak. Teak reaches a girth of 10 to 15 feet, and has a clear trunk of 

 70 or 80 feet to the first limb. In British Burmah teak exceeds in value 

 all other trees combined. The sapwood of teak is white and small. 

 The heart wood, when cut green, has a pleasant and strong aromatic 

 fragrance and a beautiful dark golden color, which on seasoning soon 

 darkens into brown, mottled with darker streaks. The timber retains 

 its fragrance to a great age, the characteristic odor being apparent 

 whenever a fresh cut is made. Teak is a wonderfully hard wood, 

 exceedingly durable and strong, and, once seasoned, does not split, 

 crack, warp, shrink, or alter in shape. It owes its chief value to its 

 great durability, which is ascribed, probably with justice, to the cir- 

 cumstance that it contains a large quantity of fluid resinous matter^ 

 which fills up the pores and resists the action of water. At the Karli 

 caves, near Poona, there is teakwood work 2,000 years old which seems 

 perfectly good at the present day. Teak lumber from different locali- 

 ties varies greatly in appearance, weight, and strength. Teak weighs 

 about 40 pounds per cubic foot. It is used in India for construction, 

 bridgemaking, sleepers, and for manufacturing furniture. It is exported 

 to Europe chiefly for building railway carriages, for shipbuilding, for 

 making decks and lower masts, and for the backing of armor plates on 

 ironclads. It is peculiarly useful for the latter purpose owing to the 

 resinous matter which it contains, acting as a preventive against rust, 

 the wood neither affecting the iron nor being affected by it. It is far 

 superior to oak in this respect. The trade in teak is very large and 

 important, and, notwithstanding the competition of other materials, 

 shows no signs of diminution. 



Sal. The sal tree (Shorea robusta) is one of the most valuable tim- 

 ber trees in India. The sapwood is distinct, is small in amount, and 

 not durable. The heartwood is brown in color, finely streaked with 

 dark lines, coarse grained, hard, strong, and tough, with a remarkably 

 cross-grained and fibrous structure. The fibers of successive concen- 

 tric circles do not run parallel but at oblique angles to each other, so 

 that when the wood is dressed the fibers appear interlaced. It does 

 not season well, but splits and warps in drying, and even when thor- 

 oughly seasoned absorbs moisture with avidity in wet weather, increas- 

 ing one-twenty-fourth in bulk and correspondingly in weight. During 

 the process of seasoning it dries with great rapidity on the surface, 

 with snperfioial flaws from unequal shrinkage. Sal, when thoroughly 



