82 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



seasoned, stands almost without a rival as a timber for the qualities 

 of strength, elasticity, and durability, which qualities it retains, with- 

 out being sensibly affected, for an immense length of time. The aver- 

 age weight of the seasoned sal is about 55 pounds to the cubic foot. 

 This timber is the one most constantly used in Northern India. It is 

 in quest for beams, planking, railings for bridges, doors and window 

 posts for houses, for gun carriages, for the bodies of carts, and, above 

 all, for sleepers for railways. In Assam it is used for boat building. 

 Owing to the fact that when unseasoned it is not floatable, difficulty 

 is experienced in getting the lumber out in the log. This is overcome, 

 however, by floating the logs either with the assistance of floats of 

 light wood or with bamboos. 



Artocarpus. The Artocarpus chaplasha grows in Burmah and East- 

 ern Bengal. The wood is brownish-yellow, moderately hard, even- 

 grained, tough, durable, and seasons well. It seems to get harder and 

 heavier as it gets older. It is used for various purposes, and is very 

 superior for use under water. 



Bamboo. The bamboo, while in reality a grass, forms the most 

 important portion of the minor forest produce of all forest divisions 

 and one that increases in value every year. It would occupy a volume 

 to enumerate by name all the uses to which the native bamboo stems 

 are put. To the inhabitants of the regions where the bamboo luxuri- 

 ates it affords all the materials required, not only for the erection but 

 the furnishing of the ordinary house. Certain species are more ser- 

 viceable for posts, others are more adapted for basket work, but with 

 one or two species every requirement can be met. It is cut up and 

 split into bands of every size and thickness, so as to allow of its being 

 manufactured into mats of any degree of quality, from the finest to 

 the coarse mats so extensively used for walls in housebuilding. Hol- 

 low bamboos are cut at the nodes lengthwise, and then opened out and 

 flattened into slabs, which may be used for the seats of chairs, tops of 

 tables, beds and other articles of furniture. The large Karen houses, 

 each of which constitutes a village in itself, being large enough to 

 contain 200 or 300 persons, are constructed entirely of bamboo. The 

 greater part of the people of eastern India and the Malay peninsula 

 live in bamboo houses. Bridges are built of bamboo in all parts of 

 India. If in good condition they may be ridden over with perfect 

 safety. The larger hollow species are used for aqueducts, water pails, 

 pots, cups, and other vessels. A single joint of a green bamboo is 

 often used for boiling the family dinner of rice. All sorts of agricul- 

 tural instruments are also made of bamboo and the appliances for spin- 

 ning cotton and wool, and also for reeling silk, are often constructed 

 entirely of this material. The Assamese make fishhooks of bamboo. 



Teak and sal are the most important sources of lumber, while bamboo 

 is used more than all kinds of timber combined, for many of the uses 

 to which lumber would be applied in other countries. Teak is pre- 

 ferred in all cases where permanency is required. 



