reality defective in some manner or other, which minimizes their 
value for lumber purposes and greatly reduces the number of board 
fe6t such logs would otherwise have produced. 
Singularly the useless or more or less undesirable spe- 
eios like the havillo, ceiba, crepo, paclisra, Panama, rubber(jigo), 
almaeigo, and numerous other softer or harder kinds are the least 
subject to the injuries incident to the growth and struggle for ox 
istance in the early stages of their development, because they are 
fast-growing trees and can- soon shoot their tope through the dense 
undergrowth, and in the course of time become the dominant species 
of the forest before the usual damaging influences can inflict 
wounds or overpower them. A careful reconnoissance of these low¬ 
lands shows that about 40 percent of the total cut per acre consists 
of these soft wooded species for which there is at present no use 
either locally or abroad* The balance of the trees in the forest 
suitable for sax? logs are slow growing species and all of them bear 
evidence of the intense straggle they passed through in early life, 
and are consequently defective and yield a surprisingly small a 
amount of sawn materiel of the upper grades that would pass the in¬ 
spection authorised by consumers and dealers willing to pay a good 
price for stock s that are clear. She upper grades of lumber of 
almost any kind of wood will egII at a price, while the loiter 
grades are sold almost invariably below the cost of production, 
i forest whose yield in upper grades of lumber is low is not re¬ 
garded as a good investment‘at any price. 
In the lowlands the logs of the espave trees may be said 
to yield approximately 60 percent of the total cut of the forest. 
However, upon close examination of the logs or stem of the standing 
trees, it will be seen that a majority of them are doty and other¬ 
wise defective. Many of the largo trees that have fallen down in 
