482 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the nuts fed to the hogs, and the finely divided tough 

 sta'ks tied into bunches for brooms. The native doesn't 

 go to the trouble to pick off the nuts he hangs the 

 bunches on the pig-sty and lets them fall gradually of 

 their own accord or hastens the process -by a daily vig- 

 orous shake. 



Photograph by S. J. Record 



ROYAL PALM THATCH 



The roof covering of this Cuban shack is made of Royal Palm 

 leaves sided with the leaf sheathes which are held in place with 

 strips of the trunk. 



The palm trunks are not like ordinary wood but they 

 produce valuable material for buildings and bridges. The 

 inside of the trunks are loosely fibrous or hollow but there 

 is a thick outer casing that is very hard and strong. It 



T':f^^^ 



'B^^M^f 



Photograph by S. J. Record 



A ROYAL PALM BRIDGE 



This small bridge in Cuba is made of the hard outer casing of a 

 trunk of a Royal Palm tree. 



is also made into walking sticks and fancy articles and 

 takes a beautiful polish. The hard strands which run 



through it, in the familiar manner of a cornstalk, show 

 on the surface like the quills of a porcupine. End sec- 

 tions show these strands as conspicuous dark dots and 

 thin layers are much used for special designs in 

 marquetry. 



OYSTER WOOD 



The writer does not remember ever having seen the 

 name "oyster wood" in print, certainly not in the com- 

 mon reference books, but it is nothing new to some of the 

 dealers and cabinet makers. 



The name oyster wood was originally applied to the 

 European laburnum from small logs of which thin end 

 sections were cut and used for veneers in cabinet work. 

 Owing to the difficulty of getting laburnum other woods 

 were substituted. The writer recently examined an old 

 table top which had a central portion of laburnum and 

 the remainder of locust. 



The Cuban oyster wood is what is commonly known 

 there as yaiti or aite (Excoecaria lucida). The tree is 

 small, rather rare, of poor timber form but has a very 

 fine-textured wood that lends itself readily to carving. 

 The heartwood is a sort of olive brown with peculiar 

 eccentric layers of darker shade that give a very peculiar 

 and pleasing appearance. The sapwood is white and 

 rather thick. 



The wood as prepared for use is sawed into layers 

 about one-sixteenth of an inch thick. The best effect is 

 produced by cutting at a slant instead of straight across 

 the end of the log. Very striking effects can be produced 

 by using such material for borders and special designs. 



KIRI-GAMI OR JAPANESE VENEER PAPER 



The Japanese manufacture a decorative material by 

 gluing very thin veneers of wood onto a paper backing. 

 Since the wood commonly used is Paulownia or Kiri, 

 they call this product Kiri-gami (Paulownia paper) 

 though some of it is put on the market under the name 

 of Kiri-kyogi-gami, kyogi meaning veneer. 



The thin veneers used are nothing more than shavings 

 made by hand with a big plane, such as carpenters use, 

 only larger. The blade is about six inches wide. A long 

 bamjboo spring pole may be used to supply an even pres- 

 sure, in which about all the workman has to do "Is to push 

 the plane back and forth over the block and gather up and 

 bundle the shavings. 



Paulownia or Kiri is a very rapid-growing tree, some- 

 times planted in this country for decorative purposes, and 

 has a light, soft and easily worked wood that is much in 

 demand in Japan for a wide range of uses. For the 

 purpose of veneers the trees are cut in winter and the logs 

 stored in cellars where they will not dry out before 

 needed. They are then cut into 'bolts 2 or 3 feet long, 

 split into quarters, and the bark and defective parts re- 

 moved. A quarter is then placed in a clamp and shaved 

 along a split side. 



After the shavings come off whole they are bundled 50 

 or 60 together and boiled for about 20 minutes in dilute 



