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Pine-Box Lumber Company
Abra Grande, Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, Cuba

Left to Right: Mary Florence Rector Bullock (1889-1973) holding Ruth Hope Bullock (1920-1976), 
Edgar Bullock (1878-1939) holding Philip Gerald Bullock (1916-2006), 
and Homer Bullock (1888-1957). The photo was taken on the Isle of Pines, Cuba in 1920.

THE ISLAND’S INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES
by Stephen Chalmers
1. THE TRAIL OF THE PLENTIFUL PINE
Article in the Isle of Pines Appeal, Saturday, April 26, 1919, Pages 5 and 6

(Note: As introductory to these articles it may be stated that the writer comes neither to praise nor to criticize. He endeavors to present such facts as he has been able to gather in a limited time from the best available sources and authorities on the particular subject dealt with. Such conclusions as may be drawn are based upon such information and belief. Errors growing out of misconception may naturally occur, but in no instance should they be attributed to anything other than human fallibility.)

In the mind of most persons abroad the Isle of Pines is somehow associated with pineapples. Why this should be would be hard to say; but the fact may be encouraging to growers of Smooth Cayenne. Few who have actually visited the island are aware of the source of its name. Yet the first thing that strikes the observant visitor - strikes him with some degree of surprise - is the fact that the island is thickly overgrown with that for which there is an unlimited and everlasting demand, not only for building purposes and minor fabrications but to solve the growing problem for pulp for paper, although the island’s pine has its disadvantage for the latter use.

Even in the Isle of Pines itself it is somewhat astonishing how few, not directly associated with the lumber industry, realize the size, growth and importance of this business. Only by checking the exports of lumber from the island ports, adding thereto an estimate of the lumber fabricated into packing boxes (not checked in export to save the shipper) and again adding an estimate of the lumber consumed within the Isle itself, does one figure that this island produces almost 10,000,000 feet of lumber every year.

To indicate how this large figure is arrived at, the number exports from Jucaro for the month of March (1919) was actually 190,000 feet. And this is said to be a fair monthly average. Nueva Gerona’s exports are estimated at about the same figure per month shipped from several box factories, one of which alone (the great mill at Abra Grande) utilizes as much as 7,500 feet of pine a day. In both cases the figures are for plain lumber and do not include, in the case of Jucaro, the immense quantities of fabricated material and ships the fabricated material to Cuba.

Thus we have between five million feet of plain lumber exported from Nueva Gerona and Jucaro annually, besides between two and three million feet of fabricated boxes; and the reader may estimate for himself the balance which is annually consumed within the island.

Truly this is the Isle of Pines. And it behooves those in authority to exert every effort, to apply every law, tending to the conservation of this not indestructible crop, to observe care and science in cutting, to encourage the Cuban government to apply the art of forestry and reforestation, to prevent the stripping of timber where the visitor-attracting beauties of the Isle may be destroyed, and - above all things - to see that the laws pertaining to the setting of grass fires are less honored in the breach than the observance.

As much good timber is destroyed annually by grass fires (carelessly set and as carelessly left to check themselves) as by the waste which occurs in the woods and the mills through the failure to utilize short ends. It was a recent authority in the "Atlantic Monthly" who said that the destruction of forests in France by the Germans was reproduced annually by fires. The same authority, a well known chemical engineer, stated that for every forty billion board-measure feet cut annually another seventy billion were wasted in the woods and at the mills.

While in a similar manner, if in a smaller way, the Isle of Pines may not be doing much better with its gift from nature, it is gratifying to note that local lumber kings are giving grave thought to this matter of conservation and it is particularly to be noted how every effort is being put forth to utilize every foot of a tree, the cutting of which is demanded by trade necessity. In some cases this may not improve matters, leading only to outright denuding of timber-lands; but for the most part lumbermen here are developing a sharp eye to the future and jealously preserving the young pine which will be the marketable lumber of tomorrow.

Some idea of the steady growth of the lumber industry may be gained from the list of present mills in operation - close on a round dozen against (quoting The Appeal for 1916) six in that year.

Not counting the big pine-box factory at Abra Grande, which will presently be described in some detail, there are two mills of La Cunagua Box and Lumber Co., one situated at La Cieba and producing only straight lumber, the other at La Cunagua turning out vegetable and citrus fruit crates for island growers. Mr. H. A. Briggs is at the head of this company, and he might well claim to being one of the forefathers of the lumber industry on this island. It was, the writer believes, at the Briggs mill some years ago that the system of "cooking" the logs for veneer was first emplyed the method being introduced by Mr. Edgar Bullock and his father, then in the employ of Mr. Briggs. The same method on a larger scale is now one of interesting features of the great mill at Abra Grande.

Senor Coferino Rodriguez might be termed another of the forefathers. There is probably no man on the Isle of Pines who knows more about King Pine and the other more hard-hearted monarchs of the island forests. Senor Rodriguez and his partners operate an extremely active mill at San Pedro and another this side of La Cieba. They produce straight lumber.

Then there is the mill of the San Jose Lumber Co., the Haenel mill at Los Indios and the San Juan mill of Senor Francisco Cardona. The last mentioned also handles hardwoods. Senor Rivas operates a mill at La Jagua and Senor Heil has one at El Hospital, while Senor Gomez contributes three mills to the list, one at La Canada, another at La Cisterna and a third at Santa Barbara. And to make the baker’s dozen there should be added Mr. W. D. Middleton’s sawmill at La Cieba.

So there can be no doubt that the chips are falling on the Isle of Pines. That haze you sometimes see hanging about the mills is composed of sawdust.

One sawmill producing straight lumber is pretty much like another in operation. That which presents the most interesting and instructive picture of the island’s lumber activities is where, like the celebrated pig which goes in whole at one end of a machine and comes out sausages at the other, we find the tree that yesterday waved in the island’s balmy breezes on the road to Jucaro next day in the shape of fruit - crates.

The largest of the box factories is that recently erected by the Pine-Box Lumber company at Abra Grande, just the other side of the La Ceiba line.

Here is a beehive of activity day and night, 70 men working in shifts upon a system perfectly evolved and carried out like military drill. Here, almost overnight, a new town sprang into existence. With its restaurants, sleeping quarters, narrow-gauge railway (the rails and ties of pine), the incessant movement of men, the continuous roar and whir of machinery and the high-pitched shrieking of great saws driven by a 100 horse-power boiler and engine, it strikes the eye and the ear like a cross between a moving picture setting of a western boom camp and something organized for the production of war material.

The president of this company is Senor Vincente Milian of Havana, who owns, among other interests, large pineapple plantations in Cuba. To obtain crates for his produce he came to the Isle of Pines, saw that it was a good place for pine and - - Well, then the wheels began to spin and the saws began to rasp, chewing up to 7,000 to 10,000 feet of pine a day and incidentally injecting a new stimulus into island business.

Senor Milian himself is authority for the statement that he can use all the pine he can get. He says he has enough to keep the big mill busy for a year, but if no more is forthcoming in the meantime it will be necessary to move the mill to Cuba. Which would be a pity.

Incidentally, Mr. Briggs makes the statement that, with the bumper grapefruit crop that is promised this year, there is going to be a great shortage of crates. Senor Milian says that while his mill is going to have its hand full for sometime to come he would not be unwilling to set aside one month to turn out grapefruit boxes for local growers. His machinery can quickly be geared to produce the required sizes.

The superintendent of this beehive of industry in the hollow behind Monte La Luisa is Mr. Edgar Bullock, a person with two unusual traits. He seldom sleeps and he always smiles. His assistants are Mr. H. D. Gearwar of Santa Fe, Mr. H. C. Palmer of Nueva Gerona, and Senor Pedro Ricarte of Havana. Between them these four men are responsible for what happens to the pine-tree when the ox-team drags it out of the forest.

First, the tree has been trimmed to a thickness of not less than five inches at the short end. Then King Pine is introduced to a villainous looking saw which slices the trunk into various purposes - small-end blocks of 12 inches long and over for end-framings of crates and large-end blocks of between 28 and 38 inches long for box-sides, tops, middles and ends, which is called veneer.

While the large blocks are tipped into great vats of boiling water to "cook" for eight hours before going to the veneering-lathes, the smaller blocks continue through a variety of processes and machines which ultimately reduces them to palitos - the sticks which frame the ends and middles of the fruit crates.

The machines that do this work are a credit to man’s ingenuity. As soon as the small blocks are sawed into short boards and chopped into palitos, the latter going to a morticing machine which cuts a groove and tenon in the ends, so that they can be fitted together as snugly as if dove-tailed. Next they meet the product of the veneering-lathe, some of which product has been cut into proper shape and size for box-ends and middles, as well as sides, tops and bottoms. The veneer ends and the grooved palitos are assembled in the framing machines and then a third machine deftly nails these end and middle frames.

So much for that part of it. The pine that waved in the breeze some hours before is beginning to look like something else.

Right behind the nailing machine the ends and middles are piled up in a shed in bundles of five of each kind. Presently along comes a big motor truck and loads up with them, if it isn’t to carry a load of veneer sides, tops and bottoms from the other department. These are vast loads you may have seen wearing ruts in the Santa Fe-Jucaro road; for the boxes are not assembled here, but at the pineapple farm in Cuba.

The method of producing the veneer, or length-boards of the box, is even fascinating. It takes eight hours to stew those big log-lengths that the villainous saw bit off. Thy are just the length of a box side, although there are smaller logs to meet the exact width and depth of the box ends and middles. Box ends are in one piece; sides, tops and bottoms are composed of two strips of veneer.

Over the vats on a little gangway several men (who may, or may not, be in training for a better world) move like demons amid clouds of steam arising from the boiling Hades below. This impression is heightened by the boat-hook-like spears with which they prod and turn the cooking logs. (In fact, when someone suggested that Abra Grande be re-named "Miliana" in compliment to the mill and its owner, Mr. Palmer almost gruffly made the amendment, "Millenium!")

When the logs are sufficiently cooked they are swung out on a derrick-like arrangement and the veneering machine grips the ends firmly between its ever-ready jaws. Then the log begins to turn on its own axis and that of the machine, and encounters a long shaving knife - a monster safety razor - which cuts a continuous length of veneer off the horizontal length, only stopping when the razor comes along flush with the axis.

The only thing for which no use seems to have been found as yet is this solid, beautifully hewn-out heart of the pine. A lady visitor made the interesting suggestion that they could be utilized for low verandah rails or even the fancy front of bungalows. She announced her attention of building such a house of such material as an experiment.

After the veneer is cut and sliced there occurs an unavoidable delay before even the palito machines can get their veneer ends to nail. This is where the necessity arises for drying the veneer after its stewing in the vats. The veneer comes from the machine hot, damp and nearly as limp as a badly starched shirt. The sun drying is necessary for firmness.

Any day at the mill one may see acres of cleared ground covered with these shingle-like slats drying in the sun. It takes a whole day of straight sunshine to dry this veneer. Sometimes it rains and then - Well, all over the Isle there may be rejoicing, but not at Abra Grande! A little rain does not matter much; it soon dries; but when the ground is sodden from a downpour it becomes necessary to place the slats to dry on the criss-crossed, strung wires of a great cage which has been erected to meet this emergency.

All day long dozens of men and boys move among the drying veneer lengths, turning them or, when quite dry, collecting them and loading them into the trucks of a small gauge railway which takes them from and to the mill where now the framing machines receive the veneer-ends and the lengths are stacked ready for the big motor truck.

Even when the whistle blows for dinner there is no total suspension of labor. While scores of men rush to get their meal tickets punched, Mr. Gearwar, master mechanic, and Senor Ricarte overhaul the temporarily silent machines, so that when the whistle blows for the resumption of work and again the beehive hums, there shall not be a second lost. With 70 men on the job, time is money!

Anyone who feels he has lost faith that there is "anything doing" on the Isle of Pines would do himself good to visit this scene of local hustle. Not only would such a visit restore his belief in the island’s resources but open his eyes to the possibilities of the local lumber industry.

And pine is not all. Another chapter might be written on the subject of island hardwoods. But these are limited compared with pine. As to the hardwood resources - actually existing timber - there seems to be various opinions, especially concerning the South Coast. But scarce or plenty, these woods are of high value - mahogany, cedar, majagua, with its rich green and gold-brown shading, Jocuma which seems to defy even salt water when used for piling, llanilla, augua, sabina, granadilla, majagua, yagruma, sange donsella, jigui and many other varieties, and two woods of rare commercial value - ebony and acetilla, or satin-wood. For the production of furniture and fancy walking-canes these woods are a valuable asset.

But, still following the trail of the plentiful conifer upon which we started, pine is not inexhaustible here. But it can be made to all practical purposes by care and scientific conservation. There is a new crop growing every minute and it will keep on growing if the grass fire fiend is locked up and if the men who are cutting timber develop, not so much conscience, as the common-sense which does not kill the goose that will keep on laying the golden eggs.

"NEXT WEEK’S ARTICLE - ‘THE ISLE OF HIDDEN TREASURES.’ A Consideration of the Isle of Pines as a Health and Pleasure Resort."

Scanned and Compiled by
Paul D. Bullock
September 1999

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