Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1884 — The Box Tree in Persia. [ARTICLE]

The Box Tree in Persia.

The boX is a shrubby, evergreen tree, which affords the valuable wood used by engravers, mathematical instrument makers, and turners. In favorable localities it attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, but in rocky regions does not rise above three or four feet. The wood is very heavy, hard, and durable, sinks in water, is very closegrained, and susceptible of a high polish. Large quantities of this valuable wood are produced in Persia. During the year 1876, 2,170 tons of boxwood were cut down in the province of Ghilan, numbering in all 60,000 pieces. When it is considered that scarcely more than one piece can be got out of one tree, and upward of 200,000 trees were hewn down last year alone in Ghilan and Mazenderam, it will be seen that such cuttings must make quite a clearing in the forests. ' From the district of Tenekabam 5,800 tons of boxwood were exported during last year, one firm of proprietors liaving cut down nearly 170,000 trees to effect this object. Every piece of boxwood worth exporting must be at least nine inches in diameter, and between four and five feet in length; it must be straight, and free from cracks, the average weight of each piece being seventy pounds; 1,000 pieces of such wood being worth, on the coast, from S6OO to SBOO. Tenekabam boxwood is superior to that of Ghilan. It is prepared for industrial uses by steeping large blocks in water during twentyfour hours, after which it is boiled in water during a certain length of time, and then allowed to dry slowly, jmmersed in sand or ashes to exclude the air, and thus prevent too rapid drying.