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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A Lumber Mill on the Tongass National Forest, Southeast Alaska. 



The logs are floated to the mill on the same waters on which their material is later transported as finished lumber. 

 The Alaska National forests are now self supporting and cut material for local use to make boxes for the salmon 

 canneries. A heavy production of pulp is promised from these forests which may be marketed in the east by 

 means of the Panama canal. This forest is at Ketchikan. 



its way into the eastern markets via 

 the Isthmus of Panama, due to a com- 

 bination rail and water rate of from 40 

 to 50 cents per 100 pounds from Puget 

 Sound points to New York. This rate 

 was inaugurated by a steamship com- 

 pany operating on the Pacific Coast. 

 Lumber has been reshipped from the 

 Atlantic seaboard as far west as Buffalo 

 at a cost of $125. per car less than it 

 could have been sent by an all-rail 

 route. The amount of lumber sent by 

 the water route has been small because 

 of the limited facilities available, so 

 that this means of transport, has had 

 no effect on transcontinental rail rates. 

 The question of what water rates 

 will apply from the West Coast to the 

 eastern seaboard, via the Panama 

 Canal, is yet undecided, but it has been 

 estimated that American ships will 

 charge from $11 to $12 per thousand 

 board feet for this service. It is doubtful 

 if the amount of lumber trafific through 



the Canal from West to East will assume 

 large proportions at least for some 

 time after the opening of the Canal, 

 because of the lack of suitable American 

 bottoms in which to carry the product. 

 While there are some new lumber 

 carriers now under construction for the 

 canal trade, the total carrying capacity 

 will not be such as to make a very 

 strong impression on eastern markets. 

 Another important factor is the lack 

 of adequate kmiber handling facilities 

 at many of the Atlantic coast ports. A 

 large part of the water shipments which 

 now come both from Canada and from 

 the yellow pine region of the South are 

 in comparatively small cargoes made up 

 of parcel lots which are delivered at 

 various docks. The lumber is also 

 often in mixed lots destined for interior 

 rail trade. Large vessel":; carrying 

 cargoes of from four to six million feet, 

 which are desirable for long shipments, 

 will find few ports where there are 



