416 FOREST PRODUCTS 



RAW MATERIALS USED 



A very large share of our natural dyestuffs is made from West Indian 

 and Central American woods. They are received in the log form from 

 3 to 8 ft. long and are sold entirely by weight. To be acceptable to the 

 dye manufacturers, the logs must be thoroughly trimmed of all bark 

 and sap wood and free from any dirt or other foreign material. Extracts 

 from these dye woods are imported to a small extent, but they are con- 

 sidered inferior to those made in the extract manufacturing plants in this 

 country. 



Logwood or Campeachy wood constitutes about 75 per cent of all 

 dye extract materials imported into this country. Fustic is next in 

 importance; then there is a great variety of foreign woods occasionally 

 used such as the Brazil-wood and other redwoods, sandalwood, etc. 

 Other forest-grown materials used for dyeing purposes are catechu or 

 cutch, sumach, gambier, etc. Other sources of natural dyes such as 

 cochineal, indigo, turmeric and madder are not classified as forest 

 products. 



Osage orange is coming into use as the principal native dyeing mate- 

 rial. Quercitron, the crushed bark of the black or yellow oak (Quercus 

 velutina) is another important native source of dyes. Other native 

 materials used to a vary limited extent are black walnuts and butter- 

 nuts, sumach, yellow wood, mesquite, alder, red gum, bluewood and 

 dogwood. 



The following is a brief description of the principal forest-grown 

 materials used for dye extracts in one form or another : 



Logwood. 



Logwood (Hamatoxylon campechianum, L.) also called Campeachy 

 wood, bois de sang, etc., is a thorny tree of the family Leguminosea. 

 It is one of the oldest dye woods in common use and is now used more 

 than all other woods together for coloring purposes. Its principal 

 source is in Jamaica, Haiti and the Bay of Campeachy in Mexico, where it 

 grows abundantly, but it is also exported from most of the Central Amer- 

 ican countries and many of the West Indies. It has been successfully 

 introduced and grown in India. Varieties of logwood are sometimes rec- 

 ognized according to their source, but they are all generally accepted 

 to be of one species. 



The wood is very heavy, non-porous, coarse-grained and yellowish 

 in color, which rapidly turns to a rich red on exposure to the air. It 

 has a very pleasing odor, resembling the violet. 



