"Boxwood is the nearest approach to ivory of any wood known, and will,
therefore, probably gradually increase in value, as it, as well
as ivory, becomes scarcer. It is now used very considerably in
manufacturing concerns, but on account of its gradual advance in price
during the past few years, cheaper woods are in some instances being
substituted.
"Small wood under four inches is used principally by flax spinners for
rollers, and by turners for various purposes, rollers for rink skates,
etc., etc., and if free from splits, is of equal value with the larger
wood. It is imported here as small as one a half inches in diameter, but
the most useful sizes are from 21/2 to 31/2 inches, and would therefore,
we suppose, be from fifteen to thirty or forty years in growing, while
larger wood would require fifty years and upward at least, perhaps we
ought to say one hundred years and upward. It is used principally for
shuttles, for weaving silk, linen, and cotton, and also for rule making
and wood engraving. _Punch, The Illustrated London News, The Graphic_,
and all the first class pictorial papers use large quantities of
boxwood."
In 1880, Messrs. Churchill and Sim reported favorably on some
consignments of Indian boxwood, concluding with the remarks that if the
wood could be regularly placed on the market at a moderate figure, there
was no reason why a trade should not be developed in it.
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