Director of Philippine Bureau ol Forestry Hono red At San Francisco Luncheon

The Director of Forestry for the Philippine lleprrblic, lilorencio Tamesis, t'as the grrest of honor at a luncheon n.reeting at the llohemian Club, San Francisco, October 21. The lur-rcheon \\.AS arrange<l lrr. representatives of Philippine harclrvood manufacturers, ancl attended lry them and by distributors, forestry rel)resentatives, ar.rcl architects.

J. E. (Ted) Higgins, of J. Ii. Higgins Lunrber Co., San Francisco, \\'as toastmaster, :rncl in his opening remarks outlined briefl1' from the distributors' poirrt of vierv the history of I'hilippine hardu'oocl production. He commented or-r the fact that distriltrrtors founcl after the tvar thai consumer demand had vanishecl, ancl gar.e his iclea of rvhat thc nranufacturers necd to clo to re-estalriish the sale of Irhilippine hardrvoods to the consumers in this corlntry.

N[r. Tan.resis rvas introclrrcecl by Ntr. I tiggins. He tolrl of the clestruction of the sarvmills irr the earrly dziys of Jrtp:rnese occupatiorr, ancl hou. procluction u'as startecl again rvhen the Americans arrir-ed bringing srlall mills u'ith then,. 561y, h€ szrid, they have more than 400 sau'mills, anrl production exceecls one billion board feet annuallr., n'hich is greater than before the u,ar. Prior to the u'ar 25 per cent of the cut rvas exportcd. This compares n'ith ,only 4.3 per cent at present.

The Philippines l'rave the largest supply of easily extractable merchurntable hardu'oocls of any country in the u'orlcl, NIr. Tamesis stated. Nferchantable tinrber is confined to about six different species, knou,n in the United .States as l'hilippine mahogany. Their forests lend them- selves to the most modern mecl.ranical methods, using exactll' the same heavy logging equipment that is used in the United States, and as a result they can compete in price lvith other hardn oods.

Mr. Tan.resis explainecl that textures vary according to u'here the timber is grou,n.

Thc lau' provides that no logs can be exported u'ithoul. being gradecl according to Government rules. Grading is uniform under Goverument supervisi,rn. They are trainirrg hardn'ood inspectors as quickly as possible, and fly thcm all over the islands l.herever r.reeded.

In conclusion NIr. Tamesis said that their reforestation l)rogram includes plar-rting of trrre nrahogany and Honcluras mahogany. The annual gro'rvth rif l'hillippine hardn'oods is estimated at about four billion board feet, t'hich indicates a very high perpetual yield.

Questions n'ere asked by Nlr. Annstrong and NIr. Bendorf. Prolessor E,manuel Fritz told of the extensive use of I'hilippine mahogany in a nnmber of large S:ur Francisco office buildings.

The foll<;u'ing \vere invited to the luncheor-r :

J. E. (Ted) Higgins, J. E. Higgius Lumber Co., San Francisco.

Don F. \Vhite, White Brothers, San Francisco.

W. T. White, \Vhite Brothers, San Francisco.

Frank J. Connolly, \Vestern Hardt'ood Lumber Co., I-os Angeles.

(Continued on Page 16)

'We mean all five of them,