Chanell No. 5

[jim king]

I was looking for something and ran across these photos.  They are of the Chanell No. 5 factory outside of town that was operational about 1899 to 1925.  It is located on the property of the first sawmill in Iquitos and was owned by a company called Astoria from New York.  They boiled down peice by peice a tree called Rose Wood here due to the smell of the essence but it is not in the true Rose Wood family.

I don´t know if it was the first factory producing the Chanell No. 5 essence or one of several in the Amazon.

[D Hagens]

Jim what's the hole for and what's the deal with that thing that looks like a stack?

[jim king]

The hole in the ground was the opening to the water resevoir and the process was boiling the wood peices, branches , bark and leaves to get the oil out.  The tall stack was from the firebox, it is tall as the operation was put in a lower spot behind the huge mill so I am assuming it was made like that to get a good draft.  The mill is still there and is still the largest in the area.  It should be made into an historical site.  They had narrow gauge tracks laid to the head rig and thru out the factory for moving the logs and products.  Also has a dam that made a lake for the log storage.  Still an incredible place by anyones standards.  All steam operated.

At that time they used to cut the trees and boil the sap out.  Now the new method is keeping the plantation trees pruned low to the ground makeing a bush type tree and harvesting the leaves only.

The oil is now in the $10,000 range for a 55 gallon drum.  Here is a photo of us inside one of the buildings when National Geografic came to see us and a satelite shot of the complex.

[D Hagens]

Thanks Jim This is all very interesting, so are these places like just outside your backdoor or is this what you come across on your travels?

[jim king]

This is located 20 minetes down the river from town.  I almost took this project on a few years ago but then started the health problems and I backed off.  It would have been an incredible project.  The whole place is constructed of Spanish Cedar and real Mahogany.

Here is a scan of the original title from 1899, the view from the bosses living room window, and the structure under the sawing house.  I was ready to start drinking Gin and Tonic in the evening over looking the river and rose garden but never realized it.

[jim king]

Here is a bit more history.

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
VOL. 22 JANUARY, 1946
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERUTHE mahogany industry of the
Peruvian Amazon is a recent
development. Although trees
"resembling Spanish Mahogany" were
reported in the sixteenth century, they
were utilized only for fuel and construction.
By 1900 a few mahogany logs
were rafted annually to Manaus and
Belem and there exported as Brazilian
mahogany. Not until 1920 were saw
mills erected near Iquitos.
In Peru the names "aguano" and
"caoba " are locally applied to mahogany.
In some areas the inhabitants
maintain that caoba is correct, in others,
aguano is insisted upon with equal
fervor. Moreover, different botanical
names have been given from time to
time. Raimondi in 1861 identified the
Peruvian mahogany tree as "Swietenia
mahagoni," saying that it was the same
species as that found in Cuba and other
islands of the West Indies. Delboy
recently applied the name "Swietenia
tassmania" which had earlier been
recommended by Harms. Some American
botanists consider it to be the
same as the Swietenia macrophylla,
King, of Central America. There are
physical differences in the wood but it
seems doubtful that they are sufficient
to warrant the naming of a new species.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MAHOGANY TREE
Wild mahogany grows in association
with hundreds of other species; never
in pure stands. Although its distribution
is far from uniform in the "montafia
," the minimum physical requirements
of the tree seem to be met
throughout the lowlands drained by
the Amazon and its tributaries of eastern
Peru. In the Iquitos area, mature
trees range from 150. to 200 feet tall.
The mahogany is one of the tallest in
the forest. Trees in the selva grow
rapidly because of the continuous death
struggle for space in the sunlight. As a
result the trunk is straight and all
branches are high up in the crown of
the tree. This makes it possible to cut
four to six logs from a bole. The light
gray bark is fairly smooth except on old
trees. The compound leaf resembles
that of the American ash or hickory.
The leaves are light green in color; they
present a fresh cool appearance and
glisten in the sunlight as though covered
with sh ellac.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS OF
MAHOGANY
Climatic records are scarce in the
Amazon region of Peru, even the best
record, that of Iquitos, covers only
2 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
scattered periods of short duration.
The accuracy of certain of these records
may be questioned because of the poor
locations of the thermometer and rain
gauge.
The climate of Loreto, the department
from which most of the Peruvian
mahogany comes, may be considered
the Rainy Tropical (Afwi after Koppen).
The temperature is continuously warm;
the warmest month (November) aver-
Note that the names for the seasons do
not correspond to the actual temperature
seasons nor to the position of the
sun, but to cloud cover and sensible
temperatures. No month is ordinarily
rainless but August is usually the driest
month. In 1941 the August precipitation
was 1.3 inches, but in 1942 it was
5.2 inches.
The prevailing wind is from the east
but it rarely blows with a high velocity.
FIGURE l.-,-Aguascaliente, a small port on the Pachitea River. Much of the gasoline and lubricating
oil used in Eastern Peru is produced by the Anzo Azul Oil Company whose refinery is near the
right side of the picture. The great height of the forest may be seen along the roadways and clearings.
ages 80 degrees F.; the coolest (June)
is 77 degrees F. The heat is not overly
oppressive. The highest recorded temperature
is 9S degrees F., and the lowest
62 degrees, F. The annual range of
temperature is so small that differences
between the mean temperatures of the
same month in successive years is apt
to be larger than the annual range. For
example: May in 1941 had a mean
temperature of 84 degrees F., in 1943
it was 76 degrees F., almost three times
the mean annual range.
The annual precipitation ranges considerably
above and below 100 inches.
The year is divided into a rainy and a
less rainy season. The period from
November through April is the rainy
season or "jnviernc " (winter), the
period from May to the end of October
the less rainy or "verano" (summer) .
The sky is covered with cloud for at
least a part of every day and the
existence of a continuous overcast for
several days, perhaps accompanying a
tropical low pressure 'area, is more
frequent than commonly supposed.
Although the mahogany tree is able
to survive periods of overflow it does
not grow on the low-lying areas that
are submerged for several months.
Mahogany is a tropical lowland tree
but it is significant that the logs from
the Pachitea River, which drains land
higher than the other rivers, are of the
best quality reaching Iquitos (Figure 1).
Mahogany responds to soil differences
on plantations, but how much the size
of the wild tree is due to soils and how
much to drainage, slope, exposure, and
competition cannot be definitely stated.
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 3
PERU
SHADED AREA IS
TROPICAL LOWLAND
FOREST - POTENTIAl-
MAHOGANY LOGGING AREAS
16 Y-.-..-:=-_~-=-_K-IL:aH:S"f)O"48 '00 )08 1I,l!i$-'~ ~--,-•~9g "r
FIGURE 2.-Tropical Forest Regions of Peru.
DISTRIBUTION OF MAHOGANY
More than one-half or approximately
400,000 square miles of Peru's total
area of 659,000. square miles is forested
(Figure 2). Most of this is tropical
lowland; all of it is located east of the
main ranges of the Andes on the steepsided
foothills and the broad , flat to
undulating plain of the upper Amazon
and its tributaries. Even though this
vast area has been traversed time and
again, little of a quantitative character
is known of its forest resources. After
completing a brief survey of the forest
resources of Peru in 1943, Cox concluded
that the range of mahogany is great in
the ,. montafia " although its density
varies from place to place. In some
areas there may be one or more mahogany
trees to the acre but more often
they are a mile or more apart.
No accurate inventory has been taken
of where the best trees are located nor
how great is the reserve. The result
is that some areas have been intensively
exploited to the point of .exhaustion,
others skimmed and abandoned and
no doubt other rich stands are still
untouched.
The distribution of exploited areas
is widely scattered, both between
operators and within the zone of one
operator. Some rivers produce no logs.
Whether this is because operations have
not been extended to them, or there are
too few trees, is not always known. The
rivers supplying the greatest number
of logs to the mills at Iquitos, in their
decreasing order 'of importance, are the
Ucayali, Huallaga, Marafion , Pachitea,
Tapiche, and Nanay. However the
rivers supplying the best logs in the
order of their excellence are thePachitea,
Marafion, Nanay, Ucayali, Huallaga,
and Tapiche.
I t is claimed that the finest area of
caoba, as well as rubber, occurs in the
Department of Madre de Dios in the
southeast of Peru. This is a part of
the Acre region which Peru shares with
Brazil and Bolivia. At present there is
no cutting of mahogany there. The
FIGURE 3.-Isolated Indian hut on a low
terrace above the level of high water on the
Upper Marafion (visible in the upper left
corner). Some conception of the diverse species
found in the tropical forest may be gained from
this as well as Figure 1.
4
44' "
ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
PERU
IQUITOS AND' ENVIRONS
BASED UPON A MAP PREPARED BY THE CITY
ENGINEER or IQUITOS .. PERU
_ I HRRAC!: MARGIIl- "(ERRACE IS THE ONLY LAND ABOVE HIGH
.... FLOOD LEVEL
_ ALL-WEATHER AUTOMOBILE ROAO
.-. SCATTERED RURAL HOUSES
"" a HOUSES THAT fLOAT AT HIGH WATER
FROM APRIL THROUGH JUNE
46'
FIGURE 4.-Iquitos and surrounding territory. The latitude, longitude, and scale are approximate.
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 5
region is a part of the watershed of the
Rio Madeira and is tributary to Brazil.
The population is sparse, the largest
agglomeration, Puerto Maldonado, has
only 600 people and the entire Department
slightly more than 5,000, nearly
all of whom are Indians only partially
aware of political boundaries. Here the
only use of mahogany is for firewood
and local construction.
METHODS OF EXPLOITATION
There is a distinct division of labor
between the production of logs and the
production of lumber. The logs coming
to Iquitos are usually cut by independent
loggers and offered for sale when they
reach the city. Although there is no
open competitive bidding for the log
FIGURE 5.-The Compania Maderera Loretana
1umber mill and storage sheds. Some of the logs
in the boom have come to rest on the bank since
the river level has dropped about eight feet
below the high point reached on May 19. The
picture was taken July 6, 1943. View slightly
upstream toward the southwest.
rafts at that time, the operator, unless
bound by contract, sells to the mill of
his choice. If he is dissatisfied with
the classification or measurement of his
logs he may float his next raft to the
other mill. Recently, because of the
shortage of logs the mills have been
offering contracts to the producers. The
logger receives financial aid from the
mill company, the company can expect
FIGURE 6.- The first cuts being made along
one side of a cedar log at Loretana. The log is
ready for turning and slabs will be taken from
four sides.
his seasons' cut to be delivered to it.
This practice benefits the saw mill in
that a more certain log supply may be
assured through controls they have on
the borrower. The •logger is benefited
by the capital he has available to begin
operations, but such a system often
keeps him in debt and obligated to the
lender.
Although some mahogany is cut
during every month, there is a definite
cutting season. This usually begins
during the less rainy period in August
or September. The logger buys the
right to cut mahogany, either from the
FIGURE 7.- Three stages in handling mahogany
lumber .. Lumber lying in the foreground
has just been sawed. In the middle ground
lumber is stood on end to dry two weeks, in the
background the dried lumber is stacked horizontally
to season with small blocks of wood
between the boards.
6 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
holder of a land title, or from the Government
Forest Service if on public
lands. Only the logger and his crew of
men may operate in the area arranged
for. One of the crew, known as a
"cruiser," surveys the area and locates
the trees to be cut. He may do this
from a tall tree but more commonly it
is done by chopping a trail through the
forest. This forest dweller has an
uncanny sense of identification and -can
recognize a mahogany tree from as
far as he can see it. A possible future
development will be the location of the
best stands of mahogany from the air
as has been done with limited success
in the case of rubber.
The axe men follow the cruiser. They
clear an area around the tree, fell it, and
cut a trail wide enough to roll the logs
to the nearest stream. The tree is
usually chopped and sawed from a platform
eight to 12 feet high to avoid the
buttressed base. The trunks are cut
into lengths from eight to 20 feet long,
FIGURE 8.-Yurimaguas, the second largest
city of the Peruvian montana. Located on the
left bank of the Rio Huallaga. View toward
the west.
depending upon their diameters and the
nature of the terrain over which the log
must be rolled. The logs' may be
rounded with axes so they may be rolled
more easily. Each year the percentage
of rounded logs ,increases as the loggers
go farther inland.
I t is the opinion of loggers that trees,
because of sap conditions, should not
be cut from five to seven days after
'new moon. It is believed that pinworm,
the only serious pest in the
ind ustry, is certain to develop in logs
cut during the dark of the moon. There
is no scientific evidence that such is the
case but cutting operations are usually
suspended at this time, The weeks
vacation thus provided may have something
to do with perpetuating this
practice.
The determining factors in choosing
trees to be cut are size and soundness.
Because unsound logs bring almost
nothing at the mill, very few logs below
first class are sent downstream. Most
of the trees that are cut average about
three feet in diameter at the sawing
height, though logs as large as 96 inches
in diameter have reached Iquitos. It
is difficult to determine the trees' age
because of the ab~ence of annual rings,
but mill operators estimate the 36 inch
logs to be from 60 to 100 years old.
Trees grow most rapidly during their
early life; in a fast growing area the
minimum sized tree that may be legally
cut (18 inches) might be only 20 years
old. The very large trees are .usually
avoided because if they are overmature
the heartwood is soft textured.
The Peruvian government has adopted
a reforestation program which obliges
the logger to replant two trees for every
one he cuts .. However, the Forestry
Service find it very difficult to enforce
this law.
During ,the cutting season each small
group of men is essentially isolated in
the forest (Figure 3). They are out of
con tact with their village homes so
that all provisions and supplies must be
carried with them or delivered at
specified intervals ,during the several
months of the logging season. After
the start of the rainy season, but before
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 7
the small streams reach their crest, the
logs are rolled by manpower to the
stream banks to await the flood which
will float them downstream to a collecting
point where they will be made up
into rafts for the trip to the mill.
TRANSPORTATION
Since there are no land routes of
transportation in the" mon tafia," everything
connected with the mahogany
business moves by water. In an emergency
a band saw blade or repair part
may come by air, but the raw materials
as well as the processed lumber constitute
a one-way traffic down the river
(Figure 4).
Single logs are collected downstream
at a point convenient to the cutting
area in the early partof the rainy season.
Here they are made up into "balsas"
or rafts for their trip to Iquitos. These
rafts are formed by lashing together
with vines ten or more logs side by side.
Two such rafts are then securely fastened
together end to end. Before the raft
is finally sent on its way two or more
units may be tied together to form a
train-like procession. Such a master
raft would contain from 40 to 100 logs
and be from 25 to 40 feet wide and from
60 to 150 feet long. If the logs are fairly
green, balsa wood or other light-weight
logs, are made up in the raft to. give
buoyancy.
Temporary living quarters are set up
on a roofed platform built at one end
of the raft. Several men may cook,
eat, and sleep on this raft for weeks.
The largest rafts are pulled, or rather
controlled bya tug whereas the smaller
ones are manually guided. At times
this requires vigorous paddling to clear
the mud bars 'and to keep in the main
channel. The trip from the Rio Pachitea
may take from Jour to six weeks. Log
runs are timed to reach Iquitos at or
shortly after the river starts to fall,
from May to August, though small lots
of logs arrive during the other months.
One of the reasons for the choice of
the Iquitos area for mill sites by the
two lumber companies was because of
its strategic location. All major rivers
of Peru, except the Napo and the two
rivers that form the northern and
eastern boundaries of the country, the
Javari and Putumayo, join the Amazon
at or above the city. Nearly all the
mahogany cut on rivers emptying into
the Amazon below, the mouth of-the
Rio Nanay goes to Manaus, Brazil
as logs, as it is very difficult to tow a
log raft upstream against the current.
Occasionally a small raft is brought up
from the mouth of the Napo River.
The mills are both downstream from
Iquitos, close enough, however, to make
use of the city's labor supply. The
Compania Maderera Loretana, (Figure
5), managed by E. C. Drewry,
an Englishman, is located three miles
below Iquitos on the west or left bank
of the Amazon. The Astoria Importing
and Manufacturing Company mill managed
by Edward Hartman, a North
American, is seven miles below Iquitos
on the left bank at the junction of the
Nanay and Amazon rivers.
BUYING LOGS
When the rafts of logs arrive at
Iquitos they are fastened with vines
and cables to trees on the bank-side.
Because of the swift current of the
stream, it is necessary- to store the logs
upstream from the mills. Within a
few days the rafts are cut apart and
measured by employees of the mill.
The logs at Loretana are inspected first
by rolling the log, then by forcing one
end and then the other out of the water
by having three or four men climb on
the opposite end. Later, logs are
floated to a cable encircled boom to
await sawing. Astoria has a wood-fired
8 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
steam derrick to lift the log out of the
river for grading and measuring, then
it dumps the log into a small pond from
which it is pulled by cable car up to
the mill.
Logs are graded by quality into first,
second, and third classes, most of them
being first class. The price of a log is
based on the number of board feet, each
first class log averaging somewhat over
700 feet.
After the logs have been graded, measurea,
and floated into the cable-enclosed
log booms, nearly one year's supply of
logs are on hand at the end of the high
water season in June or J uly . These
booms are attached to trees along the
shore and must be constantly tended
while the river is high in the event a
cable should weaken. While the boom
is being filled, all the logs are floating
but as the river level drops, as much
as 36 feet, most of the logs eventually
come to rest on the riverbank. As the
sawing season progresses, the logs, one
at a time, are rolled into the water and
floated to the tracked carrier on which
they are elevated to the mill by means
of a cable and drum.
l\!IILLING
Since the mills have not been established
long, their equipment is fairly
modern. The buildings are constructed
of unplaned cedro lumber and roofed with
corrugated. iron (Figure 5). The sides
are open to allow free circulation of air.
Most of the sawing equipment is of
American manufacture. All sawing of
logs is done with band saws which save
approximately one inch of lumber every
five cuts. The lumber dimensions are
full measure in that one inch boards
plane down to one inch in thickness.
Each mill has two or more saws, the
largest one accommodates logs with
diameters up to 72 inches. In addition
to band saws both mills have other
FIGURE 9.-Aguarana Indians living- near the
Rio Marafion above the Pongo de Manseriche.
These are characteristic of the native laborers
in the less accessible parts of eastern Peru.
equipment for edging and planing lumber.
The mahogany for export is not
planed. Power for the Astoria mill'
is supplied by woodfired boilers which
operate a reciprocating steam engine.
All machinery is powered by belts from
overhead shafts. Loretana is completely
electrified with each machine powered
by a separate motor.
Logs are first squared on the band saw
and turned from time to time so that
..lumber is cut from all four sides (Figure
6). Because of this a variety of dimensions
is obtained from each log. After
the edges of the boards are squared they
are sorted and stood on end to dry for
two weeks (Figure 7). The lumber is
then stacked with small blocks between
each board to allow air circulation. It
remains in these piles from a few days
to two or more years depending upon
the market and transportation; in recent
years lack of transportation has
been the critical factor. Lumber at
Loretana is seasoned inside sheds,
whereas Astoria stores nearly all its
lumber out-of-doors.
The mills operate at capacity for
only short periods of time. The potential
annual capacity of the Astoria mill is
about 5,000,000 board feet and the
Loretana about 2,000,000 board feet,
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 9
but shortages of logs as well as technical
and unskilled labor, and breakdowns
usually reduce the output to less than
one-half capacity. Iquitos exported
2,500,000 feet of mahogany in 1939.
MARKETING MAHOGANY
Nearly all of the mahogany lumber is
exported from the country. Although
cedro is shipped by way of the Amazon
texture, principally because the lumber
is manufactured in the tropics and all
the soft textured .wood in the heart of
overmature trees is eliminated from
the grades that come to the United
States. As a result of tests conducted
in the laboratories of Cornell University,
Peruvian mahogany was found to
increase and lose weight by absorption
and shrinkage by an amount only
FIGURE lO.-Road between Iquitos and Punchana. Naval oil storage tanks and' the partially
completed dry-dock are located between the road and the river. View toward the east-southeast.
and Panama Canal from Iquitos to the
Pacific Coast of Peru, both as logs and
as lumber, no Peruvian mahogany
ordinarily reaches Lima. The demand
for mahogany there is supplied by imports
of logs from Central America.
Nearly all the Amazonian mahogany
is marketed in the United States which
normally imports from 80 to 90 per cent
of the world's total cut. At the present
time first grade mahogany is classed as
a strategic war material and only consumers
with top priorities may buy it.
Most of it goes into boat and airplane
construction, and pattern making. In
peace times the furniture trade, fabricators
of decorative interior woodwork,
and boat builders buy the major part
of the supply.
Peruvian mahogany lumber is held in
high esteem by boat builders and the
furniture trade. The wood is straightgrained
and runs very uniform as to
slightly greater than that of Cuban or
Spanish mahogany. The other mahoganies
tested, swelled and shrunk from
three-tenths of one per cent to five and
eight-tenths per cent more. In tests
of bending, compression and shearing
strength, Peruvian mahogany excelled
all others, but in hardness it was surpassed
by Cuban mahogany.
Although the market for mahogany
was undersupplied in 1943, the Astoria
mill had over 3,000,000 board feet
of clear, first grade mahogany stacked
about the mill because of a shortage
of shipping space. No ocean-going
freighters had called at Iquitos in nearly
a year.
LABOR SUPPLY
In common with other commercial
enterprises of the Amazon, the mahog ..
any industry must compete in a deficient
labor market. Even though the war10
ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
time demand for mahogany greatly
advanced the price of lumber, neither
mill has increased production, one of
them actually produced less in 1943
than 1942 because of a shortage of logs,
breakdowns, inability to replace wornout
equipment and difficulty in maintaining
a full crew of labor.
The well conducted census of 1940
counted 181,341 people in the Department
of Loreto and estimated that
140,000 more lived in the forests and
along smaller rivers where no accurate
census was made. Most of the counted
people live along the banks of the
Amazon, Ucayali, Huallaga, and Maranon
rivers (Figure 8).
This obviously limited supply of labor
produces the rubber, leche caspi, balata
and other gums, barbasco, cotton, coffee,
tagua nuts,various fruits, medicinal
plants, vegetable oils, plant fibers, and
hides and skins of the "montana."
Moreover, due to the primitive organization
of the region, it is necessary that
most families produce much of their
food supply. This is done by collecting,
hunting, and fishing, and the cropping
of small clearings which requires more
man-hours to provide the daily needs
of the family than would be required by
specialized agriculturalists.
Very little of the potential supplies
of labor in the towns such as Iquitos
(34,231) or Yurimaguas (5,000) is available
to employers in the up-river areas
of the "montana" because of actual
and fancied dangers to life there (Figure
9). The higher pay that is now offered
for work in the forest is countered by
higher 'wages in the towns. Before
1941 the usual rate of pay for unskilled
labor was about $.32 a day but by late
1943 this had risen to $1.00 or $1.50
(Figures 10 and 11).
A contributing cause to the shortage
of labor is the poor health of the average
worker which in turn is partly due to an
inadequate diet. The only foods that
are always available are "yuca" (mand
i 0 c a ) and "pI a tan 0 s" (coo kin g
bananas). Both of these are high in
starches and low in the fortifying food
elements. Nevertheless many urban
dwellers, and even rural people as 'Yell,
eat nothing else for considerable periods
of time. When this diet is enriched, or
varied, it IS usually done by supplementing
it with rice and farinha (yuca flour).
Meat is scarce and too expensive for
many urban families, their meat supply
is derived from monkeys and birds shot
in the forest and fish caught in the rivers.
Because of an inadequate diet and
the prevalence of infections, a very large
proportion of the population suffers
more or less constantly with intestinal
parasites and skin infections. In addition,
certain regions are notorious for
their high incidence of malaria, beri-beri,
leprosy, and yellow fever: the latter
has been nearly eliminated. Other
disorders such as grippe or influenza,
dysentery and a neuralgic condition
may strike large numbers at any time
in any area. The people of Iquitos
enjoy a state of health probably better
than the people in most of the smaller
towns and scattered rural areas. This
is not due to a safe water supply nor to
an adequate sewerage disposal system.
To date Iquitos has neither, although
projects to provide these are partially
completed.
The wages of workers in the mills,
even though they have increased, have
not kept up with the higher costs of
living. I t was claimed that by August
1943, even though wages had more than
doubled, the cost of food had quadrupled.
Food accounts for a large part
of the budget of a family whose income
is less than one dollar a day.
One-half or more of the laborers at
the mills live on small plots of ground
within a short distance of the mill where
~AHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 11
FIGURE 11.-Airport at Quitos. The landing field was extended in 1944 across the road and off
the left side of the picture. Moronacocha along right margin. View toward southeast.
they may supplement their wages by
producing a part of their own food
(Figure 12). Fifteen or 20 employees
of Astoria live in I qui tos and travel to
and from 'York on a company boat.
USES
Due to mahogany's color, grain, and
hardness, it has long been a premier
cabinet wood. However its ease of working,
its strength, and its adaptability
for veneers have added greatly to its
utility.
In the regions where mahogany grows
it does not hold a high place. I ts weigh t
and hardness are handicaps which favor
the use of lighter and softer woods for
construction; and where a highly finished
article is desired other woods such as
" palo de sangre" (rosewood) are harder,
and have a richer color.
Peruvian mahogany is golden-brown
when dry, but when freshly cut it has
a yellowish to salmon pink color. Its
appearance is totally unlike the artificially
dark red finish typical of mahogany
furniture of the last century. Since
Peru exports no logs and there is no
cutting of veneer in Iquitos, all Amazonian
mahogany from Peru used in the
U.S.A. is lumber and not veneer. The
principal demand at present is for
straight-grain mahogany lumber for
use in naval and aircraft construction
(PT boats, propellors). Such lumber
comes only from straight clear logs.
Here mahogany's advantage is not in
its beauty but in its strength. vs. bulk,
and its resistance to swell, shrink, and
warp. Although only grade one select
mahogany is permitted to corne into
the United States from the Amazon
for use in .construction of boats, airplanes,
model and pattern making,
instrumen ts and instrument cases, the
second grade common lumber will be
used to good advantage by furniture
12 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
manufacturers when shipping space is
again available.
The reason for mahogany's wartime
demand is based upon (1) its high ratio
of strength to weight, (2) its resistance
to moisture and atmospheric changes
causes it to warp, shrink, swell and twist
less than any other commonly used
lumber, (3) great size of the tree which
may yield unusually large clear pieces,
(4) large proportion of logs are straight
grained, (5) its uniformity due to ab-
FIGURE 12.-Homes of, two mill laborers to
the north of Loretana. This area is flooded
several, weeks each year necessitating homes on
poles or balsawood rafts to keep dry.
sence of alternate rings of dense and
less-dense wood lends itself to ease of
turning, gluing and other manufacturing
processes, (6) mahogany is resistant
to rot, mould, and other organisms of
decay. It is particularly adaptable for
use in the tropics where termites and
other organisms quickly destroy many
other woods, (7) it dries quickly and
without waste in kilns, (8) takes and
holds finishes well.
The postwar demand for mahogany
for furniture and woodwork will be due
to the above qualities plus the decorative
effect of the figure and grain of
parts of the tree now unused.
SUBSIDIARY CONSIDERATIONS
An industry which originated as a byproduct
of the lumbermill at Loretana
is the electric power plant for the city
of Iquitos. The power plant was
originally fired with scrap and waste
from the mill ,but further enlargement
has so increased its requirements for
fuel that the mill furnishes only a minor
part now. The power plant is, however,
conveniently located to its present main
source of wood. The Rio Nanay
approaches within 200 yards of the
Amazon so that a narrow gauge track
has been built from the power plant to
the Nanay. The labor supply for wood
cutting on the Rio Nanay has been so
uncertain that postwar plans call for
installation of oil burning equipment in
spite of the wealth of wood in the
immediate vicinity. In 1943 there was
rarely more than' three or four days
supply on hand at any time.
In addition to mahogany both mills
cut large quantities of "cedro' , or
Spanish cedar. This is the most widely
used constructional lumber in eastern
Peru. It is a curious fact that practically
no mahogany is shipped to
western Peru but neatly all the cedar is.
The Astoria Importing and Manufacturing
Company, as its name implies,
has an interest in eastern Peru beyond
the cutting of lumber. Besides contracting
for logs and advancing money for
them, the company is interested in the
promotion of a number of other Amazonian
products. Among these are
Hevea and caucho rubber, barbasco,
cinchona bark, a palm nut resembling the
Brazilian babassu, tagua nuts, leche
caspi, balata, and various skins.
The mahogany planta tionat Loretana
has 7,000 trees from four to Ll vyears
old (Figure 13). Astoria has approximately
the same' number. planted at a
later date. So far no disease has manifested
itself among these closely spaced
mahogany trees. In their widely scattered
locations in the forest the trees
have few biological enemies but in the
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 13
FIGURE 13.-A view of the mahogany plantation
at Loretana. These trees are seven years
old. The land is kept clear for the first years
by raising food crops. Thereafter the only
attention given is the chopping out of undergrowth
once or twice a year.
close contact of a plantation blights and
other enemies might be expected to
appear.
FUTURE
Although the mahogany industry of
Peru is a relatively. new one, the easily
available logs of the most accessible
rivers have already been exploited. In
the future, loggers will have to go farther
from the streams and operate on minor,
water bodies. Up to the present and
for some time into the future, if shortages
hinder lumber production it will
likely be due to a shortage of labor in
the cutting areas.
Because of the favorable growing
conditions on the Amazon and the
scattered occurrence of mahogany,
young trees are ordinarily not disturbed
when an area is worked over, in this
way mature mahogany trees from previously
exploited areas might be cut
every ten or twenty years.
I t is the opinion of some that the
greatest hope for the future of mahogany
in Peru lies in the enlargement of
plantations such as those started by the
two lumber mills, where from ten to
fifteen thousand trees are now growing.
These trees have grown to heights of
25 feet in ten years and should reach
maturity in about 40 years. If the mills
are then operating at approximately
the same capacity as now, the area
already planted might provide a three
to a six year supply of logs.