People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — NATURE’S WONDERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NATURE’S WONDERS.

The Marvelous Display of Trees and Woods at the World’s Fair. Commercial Timber of the World—Mokoganj from Cuba and Teak from Siam—Nctoral Freaks from Far-Off Forests. (Special Chicago Correspondence! In the Forestry building 1 at the Colombian exposition are to b* found some of the most marvelous and interesting exhibits of all the great fair. This will apply more particularly to the farming people, who quite naturally know more about forestry and kindred pursuits than do the people of the larger cities, bat for all, whether from city or country there is a world of interest in the queer work of nature as exemplified in the forests of the world. Situated somewhat remote from the grand central buildings of the fair, in

the southern portion of the grounds on the lake front, the beautiful repository for forest productions is, to many unknown. The general feeling after a ramble through the central buildings is that the principal portion of the fair

lias been gone over, and after a cursory glance at the distant buildings on the outskirts the majority of risitors resol re to “take them in” at some future time and. betake themselves home. The same thing is apt to occur at their next

visit, and there is where they make a great mistake. The southern portion of the grounds, so little visited by many of the people who go to the fair, contains some of the most interesting features of the exposition. There are the cliff dwellings, the Yucatan ruins, the Forestry building, Dairy building, Leather building and the Live Stock department People are frequently heard to remark: “Oh, I don’t care about going away over there. There isn’t anything worth seeing over there,” etc.; but those who do tab e the trouble to walk a few blocks further are well repaid for the extra exertion by the rare sights which greet their eyes in that direction. The Forestry building contains some of the most beautiful specimens of polished .and rough woods ever displayed in the world. The building itself is a study in rustic architecture and well worth inspection. At the extreme southern end of the building is shown the largest plank in the world. It is of redwood, from Humboldt county, Cal. Of it the following description is given: “The great tree from which the plank

was hewn was thirty-five feet In diameter, when standing, and was supposed to have reached the patriarchal age of fifteen hundred years. A part of one side of the tree had rotted, and, after it had been felled, in burning up the surrounding brush, still more of the tree was destroyed by fire, so that the width of the plank represents less than half of the original diameter of the tree. The entire height of the tree was three hundred feet; the plank being cut from a section of the trunk twenty-eight feet from the ground. The plank is the largest in the world, its dimensions being as follows: Sixteen feet five inches wide, twelve feet nine inches long and five inches thick. It is highly improbable if a tree will ever be found that will yield a larger plank; so that the mammoth piece of timber here described may certainly be termed tha sight of a lifetime.” Jn the exhibit of the Argentine Republic is shown an octagonal block of wood which yields twenty-five percent, of tannin. In Paraguay’s exhibits are precious woods of colors approximating to those of jewels. These are polished to a degree that is surprising, and mbke a beautiful showing. Kentucky—at the eastern side of the building—shows a section, hollowed out and placed so that visitors can pass through it, of a sycamore from the birthplace of Jefferson Davia It is eleven feet in diameter. Near the north end of the building are shown cross sections of trees from Oregon. There is a yellow fii log six feet in diameter. The yellow fir grows all over the northwest coast range mountains. It is of superior excellence for ship building and spars. It ranges from two to ten feet in diameter. A cross section of a trunk of tide lund spruce is shown. It is nine feet nine inches in diameter. The butt was sixteen feet in diameter, the tree being three hundred and five feet high and thi-ee hundred years old. Great slabs of noble fir, spruce, lovely fir and yellow fir are shown. An exhibit of especial interest is that of the Jessup collection of woods in the United States from the American Museum of Natural History at New York. The state of this name adopted a novel method for displaying its woods. A thin section of the wood of each tree is mounted in a frame with a photograph

and leaves of the tree itself. These specimens are arranged so they can be looked through toward the lighted side of the exhibit. The central exhibit in the building is a grand pyramid built of specimens of wood from all the world. It is a congress of blocks, something decidedly more novel than a congress of blockheads. California’s contribution, a cutting fourteen feet in diameter, redwood four hundred and seventy-five years old when Columbus landed under the scant shade of palm trees at San Salvador, forms the base of the pyramid. Around and on it are grouped Ching Chang from Siam, bamboos from J a pan, teak wood from India, and specimens from all other coun tries and from every state in the United States whether designated a prairie state or not. And there is a real, sure enough ax, glass-cased, that figures as a sort of a frontispiece to this wood

Yes, Gladstone’s ax is at the fair, the very ax he used in cutting out the under growth at Hawardea while training to knock out the marquis of Salisbury in the political arena. To every one who visits the great fair we would say, by all means see the Forestry exhibit. Don’t think it not worth your while to look at the trees. There is a great lesson to he learned among them and in viewing them you are brought o’oser to the great bosom of nature.

KENTUCKY SYCAMORE.

MINNESOTA EXHIBIT.

CALIFORNIA REDWOOD.

FREAK FROM SOUTH DAKOTA.