HOW CICxAR-BOX WOOD IS SECURED 



1101 



small a percentage of the price of the finished article as 

 to be negligible. Long use of this wood for cigar boxes 

 has demonstrated that as a matter of economy to the users 

 it would stand an increase in price of 25 per cent and still 

 be an economical material to be employed for that pur- 

 pose. In Havana the wood sells for about $100 to $150 

 per thousand board feet. The range of prices (New 

 York inspection) for the Cuban wood is from $80 to 

 $110; for Mexican from $60 to $120, and for Central 

 American grades from $60 to $90 per thousand board 

 feet. These prices are quoted in the New York markets 

 for logs scaled by the one-fifth rule. Although Cuban 

 wood is considered the best, the growth from Trinidad 

 has in recent years taken the lead in price. Practically 

 all of the cigar-box wood produced in Trinidad goes to 

 Hamburg, where it brings from 40 to 65 cents per cubic 

 foot, and has been sold for as high as 80 cents. 



It is not likely that the use of the wood will decrease. 

 It seems that the increase in importation and use of the 

 wood now depends greatly upon the development of 

 sources of supply. At present the grand aggregate sup- 

 ply for the world's use appears to be at a standstill, but 

 there are immense resources of this wood in the tropical 

 countries and it can be a matter of but a few years before 

 new districts will be opened up and perhaps the old ones 

 further developed so that the supply will be temporarily 

 increased. The extent of its use is likely to be limited 

 only by the supply. The imports of cigar-box wood 

 entered for consumption in the United States show a 

 steady increase, their value in 1914 being nearly a million 

 dollars. 



The principal points from which cigar-box wood is 

 exported are Tecolutla, Frontera, Cazones, Laguna, Santa 

 Ana, Chiltepec, Campeche, Coatzacoalcos, Minatitlan, 

 Nautla, Tonzala, Cheucan, in Mexico, and also from a 

 few points on the west coast. The chief ports in Central 

 and South America are Belize, Panama, Colon, Porto 

 Cabello, Carthagena, Puerto Colombia, Maricaibo, 

 Georgetown, Para and Bolivia. A good deal of the ma- 

 terial comes from points on the islands of Cuba, Hayti 

 and St. Domingo, Jamaica and Trinidad. 



The uses of cigar-box wood do not vary except that 

 perhaps they are becoming more restricted. Its principal 

 use in this country and in Europe is for making cigar 

 boxes. It is made also into furniture of all kinds and is 

 much admired for its rather close grain and beautiful 

 satin-like luster resembling true mahogany. In fact 

 cigar-box wood is considered by many a near equivalent 

 to true mahogany for many purposes. In tropical 

 America it has as many uses as the white pine has in 

 this country. It is recommended for house construction 

 and especially for interior trim, because white ants are 

 said not to attack it. This is ascribed partly to the strong 

 odor it exhales and also to the bitter taste of the wood 

 itself. Another important use for this wood is for 

 shingles, which are said to outlast those made from any 

 other tropical wood. The logs coming into this country 

 are too expensive to be converted into shingles and it is 

 safe to say that fully 80 or 90 per cent of the logs entered 



here go to the cigar-box factories to be manufactured into 

 shooks and in this form are shipped to the various cigar- 

 making centers like Tampa and Key West. 



PRIZE FOR FIRE PROTECTION 



IN ORDER to reduce the danger of fire after lumber- 

 ing, the Vermont Forestry Department oflfers a prize 

 to the lumber company that makes the best dis- 

 position of its slash during the winter of 1915-1916. 

 The prize offered is the maintenance during the fire 

 season of 1916 of a state or federal patrolman to protect 

 the holdings of the company making the best effort to 

 protect itself. This patrolnan will be in addition to the 

 regular force which has been maintained the past twf> 

 years. 



In offering this prize the Forestry Department doe- 

 not impose any impossible conditions. It does not specif} 

 in what way the slash shall be disposed of. It does noi 

 require that the slash throughout a cutting shall be dis- 

 posed of. It may be on a strip along the edge of the 

 cutting. It is, however, stated that no applicants will be 

 considered who have not made some disposal of slash 

 over an area of at least 100 acres. 



A NATIONAL FOREST ABOLISHED 



THE President, upon recommendation of Secretan 

 of the Interior Lane and Secretary of Agri- 

 culture Houston, has signed a proclamation 

 abolishing the Kansas National Forest, to take effect on 

 December 1, 1915. This National Forest is located in 

 Finney, Kearny, Grant, Hamilton and Haskell Counties, 

 comprising the sand-hill region of Western Kansas, and 

 the public lands therein aggregate 138,729 acres of the 

 total of 262,787 acres within its exterior limits. Of these 

 138,729 acres, 3,022 are withdrawn pending proposed 

 legislation to reserve the same as a game refuge, there 

 being a small herd of antelope in that region believed 

 to be the last of their kind in Western Kansas. 



BIRD'S EYE MAPLE 



MR. ROBERT T. MORRIS of New York writes 

 to American Forestry as follows : 

 "The excellent article on 'Commercial Uses 

 of the Sugar Maple' in the November number of Ameri- 

 can Forestry does not give due attention to one point 

 of considerable consequence, the value of bird's-eye 

 maple for veneer purposes. Some years ago in Maine 

 I ran across a man who devoted himself to searching 

 the forests far and near for specimens of bird's-eye 

 maple. He told me of finding one tree for which he 

 had received $200, if I remember correctly. I asked 

 him why he did not set out one million sugar maple 

 seedlings on land worth $3.00 per acre, current local 

 value, and then graft all of these seedlings from a 

 valuable bird's-eye maple. This according to uncensored 

 mathematics would give him about $200,000,000 profit 

 at the end of say sixty years, a couple of years after 

 his death perhaps. His reply was that he hadn't thought 

 about it." 



