AEGENTINE TIMBERS 
141 
with the axe, but now for sleepers many of them are sawn. 
The main use to which the wood has been put besides for 
tannin extract is for sleepers, and over 7,000,000 have 
been used on the Argentine railways, many after having 
lain in the track for fifteen or twenty years being still 
perfectly sound. " Fencing posts which have stood for 
more than a century have been found in a perfect state of 
preservation " (Mc'/uoirc^s cie k Societe des Ingenieiirs Civil 
cle France, 1899). 
Weight varying from 77 to 87 lbs. per cubic foot. 
The white kind, Cluebracho Blanche, which contains little 
tannin, speedily rots ; it is a much softer wood. The name 
quebracho, which means " axe breaker," is significant 
of the character of the timber. It is liable to attack by an 
insect which bores holes half an inch in diameter right 
through the tree. This timber in both kinds is also found 
in Paraguay and in parts of Brazil ; the available supplies 
are getting scarce, and the price of late years has 
considerably increased. 
Lapacho {Talebnia Jiorescino) is a small tree found in 
abundance in the northern provinces ; it also grows in 
Bolivia and Paraguay, and furnishes an excellent timber 
not unlike greenheart, of a greenish brown colour. It is 
tough and heavy, used for purlins, rafters and roof trees, 
framing of railway cars, boat-building, spokes of wheels, 
beams, etc., and is more costly than quebracho. The tree 
grows to a height of about 30 ft. and has a diameter of 
18 inches. It is one of the most largely used timbers of 
Argentina. 
Weight about 63 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Guayacan {Ccssalpinia melanocarpa) is one of the hardest 
timbers in the country, of rich brown colour with close 
