THE PANAMA CANAL AND THE LUMBER TRADE 



91 



Boom of Logs and Sawtviill at Douglas, Alaska. 



the deep fiord-like "canals" of the alaskan coast offer exceptional opportunities for rafting 



logs and for loading them from the wharves to ocean-going vessels. 



importance to the yellow pine manu- 

 facturers is in the Argentine Republic 

 where there is a very large demand. 

 Southern shippers are familair with the 

 needs of this market and would offer 

 resistance to any incursions in their 

 selling territory. 



The West Coast of South America will 

 probably always remain largely in the 

 hands of the western lumber producers 

 owing to their proximity . The cheaper 

 freight rate, coupled with the fact that 

 fir limiber usually sells at a lower f.o.b. 

 mill price will largely discourage yellow 

 pine men from seeking to develop a 

 market in that part of the world. The 

 same is true also of the Asiatic markets 

 whose demands for our lumber have not 

 increased greatly during the last de- 

 cade. It is more than probable that out- 

 side of the limiber shipped there from 

 the west coast that the chief supplies 

 will be drawn from Japan, Formosa 

 and Siberia, all close at hand. 



It is not to be expected that the 

 opening of the Panama Canal will 

 either be a panacea for all of the troubles 



of the Coast lumbermen or the means 

 of giving the people of the eastern part 

 of the United States cheaper limiber, 

 since it will take some years to build up 

 a trade in western lumber and to 

 develop shipping and terminal facilities 

 so that the movement of large quantities 

 of fir lumber will be possible. In the 

 meantime the advancing price of stump- 

 age and the reduction in the annual out- 

 put of southern yellow pine, its greatest 

 competitor, will have reduced compe- 

 tition and the territory now controlled 

 by the pine manufacturers will gradually 

 be absorbed by the Coast manufac- 

 turers without any marked reduction in 

 lumber prices — probably at an increased 

 price. We need not expect cheaper 

 lumber on the eastern seaboard because 

 of the opening of the Canal but we may 

 reasonably hope to have a more gradual 

 increase in lumber values than we would 

 be warranted in expecting if the pro- 

 ducts of the great forests of the West 

 were not to be made available to us at 

 a transportation cost much lower than 

 now prevails. 



