620 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



In naval stores again the south loses 

 heavily. Austria, Belgium, Germany, 

 Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom 

 take rosin worth $7,598,233, and tur- 

 pentine valued at $4,719,781, a total of 

 $12,318,014. Most of this will be cut 

 off from market, for Germany alone 

 takes $4,823,815 worth, and commerce 

 with Germany does not now exist. 

 France, being a producer and exporter 

 of naval stores, does not take our south- 

 ern product. The latest figures (1909) 

 on the total production of rosin give 

 3,263,857 barrels, valued at $12,576,- 

 721. In that year the total production 

 of turpentine was 28,988,954 gallons, 

 valued at $12,654,228. There can be 

 no doubt that since these Census fig- 

 ures were gathered the quantity of 

 rosin and turpentine produced has fal- 

 len off and the value has increased. A 

 comparison of the figures of total pro- 

 duction with those of exports to the 

 countries now engaged in war shows 

 that by far the greater proportion of 

 all naval stores produced has been 

 going to them. 



Nearly all our hardwood exports go 

 to Europe, and principally to those 

 countries now engaged in war. In this 

 connection it is interesting that a large 

 part of our walnut — and the very 

 choicest — has been going to the present 

 belligerents, and mainly to Germany, to 

 be made into gun stocks. Here again 

 the South suffers, in commerce if not 

 in production, because New Orleans is 

 the principal source of hardwood ex- 

 ports. Proportionately, the hardwood 

 industry is the hardest hit of all south- 

 ern lumber, because such a large part 

 of the product depended on the export 

 market. A single example, that of the 

 vast export of oak barrel staves to hold 

 French wine and German beer, is suf- 

 ficient to indicate what war is doing. 



The conditions arising out of difficul- 

 ties in transportation are only indicated 

 in the foregoing paragraphs, which 

 are intended to be merely suggestive. 



PEACE DEMANDS CUT OFF 



In countries at war the arts of peace 

 are at a standstill. The building of 

 homes will cease, large projects of con- 



struction will be abandoned, and the 

 demands for timber will naturally fall 

 oft". England has been experiencing 

 great activity in the building trades. 

 The limber l^radcs Journal, of Lon- 

 don, says, "Of course, the 'boom' in 

 the housebuilding trade will receive a 

 severe check; first, because few will 

 continue to spend money on speculative 

 enterprises of this sort, and secondly 

 . the stocks in this country 

 will be insufficient to meet any large 

 demand for building timber. The Go\ - 

 ernment also will scarcely be able to 

 press on with its social programme, and 

 the Housing Bill will either be post- 

 poned or abandoned." 



Continental business is paralyzed 

 and all sorts of public works have been 

 abandoned. 



So, even aside from crippled com- 

 merce, the normal demands of peace 

 are at a standstill. Even though all the 

 timber required for military operations 

 might be transported without risk, the 

 quantities used would not begin to com- 

 pensate for the vast decrease in build- 

 ing and manufacturing in those coun- 

 tries actively at war. 



DEPRESSING EFFECTS AT HOME. 



All this curtailment of foreign mar- 

 kets, the greatly augmented risks of 

 foreign shipments, and increases in 

 costs of. transportation and insurance, 

 mean over-production at home, or an 

 entire cessation of activity such as has 

 already taken place in parts of the 

 south which have been supplying the 

 export trade. The Southern Lumber- 

 man, while granting that one-tenth of 

 the southern pine cut is exported, says 

 "it is no killing matter even if the 

 whole of these exports be wholly 

 stopped for a few months." But the 

 mills which supply this tenth will take 

 little comfort from the statement, par- 

 ticularly in connection with that "if." 

 All except the most sanguine authori- 

 ties think the war is quite as likely to 

 be an affair of a year or more, as of a 

 few months. The South cm Lumber- 

 man journal takes a fairly hopeful 

 view, but much of its hopefulness de- 

 pends on certain "ifs." which are ever 



