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World Markets for American Lumber 



BY HI' JIAX\VELL 

 FITTH ARTICLE 



Editor's Note 

 - The hundreds of islands, large and small, known coUectivel.v as tbc West Indies, offer esceptional advantages to 

 the tmerican lunU°erman who is desirous of increasing his foreign sales That recon is rich in articles raised for 

 exnoi-t and is therefore able to buv liberally what it needs from abroad. It is fairly well supplied with hardwoods 

 of Us 'own but not w[th softwoods.- It is nbt a manufacturer of wood. products. It sells its logs in the rough and 

 it 1111V5 fnrnitnre farm imnloments and vehicles. There lies the opening for American hardwoods. The softwoods 

 of tSfs country alVeadfhaTanopen^ are able to lill. and perhaps to enlarge. The field is ree from 



rivals and the only limit to the growth of our lumber trade in that direction is the desire and ability of the people 



rivals, and the only , 



of the West Indies to buy what we have to sell 



DURING more than four hundred years the West Indies have 

 allured traders. In the first fifty years after the discovery 

 by Gohimbus the Spaniards destroyed most of the native Indian 

 population in an insane exploitation of the natural resources of 

 the islands, ehietly the mines which were never very rich. Then 

 followed the development of agriculture by slave labor brought 

 from Africa, and incessant quarrels among European nations for 

 possession of the best islands. The contestants were English. 

 Spanish, French, and Dutch, and all but the Spanish retain pos- 

 sessions there. The United States has succeeded Spain in the owner- 

 f^hip of Porto Eico. The West Indies still are divided among five 

 foreign nations, including Denmark, while one independent nation, 

 Cuba, holds nearly one-half of the total land area of the entire 

 group of islands, and the two independent republics, Haiti and 

 Santo Domingo, possess the island of Haiti. 



West India trade has always been considered very valuable. Eng- 

 land long counted her possessions there more profitable than all 

 the colonies in what is now the United States and Canada. The 

 islands bought enormous quantities of European manufactures and 

 gave in exchange sugar, molasses, rum, dyes, and cabinet woods. 

 The early hifctory of that region was a record of long periods of 

 trade rivalries between the different nations. It was not a peaceable 

 competition in the markets, as is usually the case now; but there 

 was public war, while piracy, buccaneering, and force of all kinds 

 were used, without apology, to win trade from rivals. Cities were 

 destroyed for scarcely any other reason than to put them out of 

 business as trade rivals. Much of that ferocious work was done 

 by English buccaneers, who were so nearly like pirates that the 

 difference was hardly noticeable, except that they usually preyed 

 on England's enemies, and enlarged their country's opportunities 

 to secure business. A well-known English poet sized up the work 

 done by the buccaneers in the following forceful lines: 



' ' They diced with death. Their big sea-boots 



Were greased with blood. They swept the seas 



For England; and we reap the fruits 



Of their heroic de\alries. 



****** 



' ' They laughed at odds for England 's sake. 

 We count, yet cast our strength away. 

 One admiral with the soul of Drake 

 Would break the fleets of hell today." 



Among the earliest commodities sent to the West Indies were 

 lumber, staves, and other cooperage. The raw material for these 

 was not to be had in Europe, consequently, the eastern coast of 

 North America supplied them, and after the Revolutionary war 

 most of that trade passed to the United States, and we have held 

 it ever since. Figures are quoted below which give the state of 

 our West India timber trade today, which is an inheritance from 

 the past centuries. 



Geography op the West Indies 



The geography of the West Indies fits that region for commerce 

 with the United States. The islands lie in three general groups 

 south and southeast of our shores. The nearest are less than one 

 hundred miles from the mainland, and the farthest less than two 

 thousand. The total land area of the whole West Indies is about 

 —18— 



100,000 square miles. There are more than 6,000 islands of all 

 sizes, some of which are little more than rocks or sandbars, others 

 large and fertile. They are scattered over an area of 1,200,000 

 square miles of water, consisting of parts of the Gulf of Mexico, 

 the Caribbean sea, and the Atlantic ocean. 



The principal divisions of the West Indies are the Bahamas, 

 Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles. The Bahamas lie east and 

 southeast of Florida, from seventy-five to five hundred mUes distant. 

 The group of islands is made up of twenty-nine of considerable 

 size, 661 smaller, and 2,837 rocks and bars. The total area is 5,450 

 square miles, the population 53,735, of which 12,000 are white. The 

 Bahamas belong to Great Britain, and are a portion of the area 

 known as British West Indies. The formation is largely coral or 

 the sand of pulverized coral. On some of the islands the negroes 

 pry lip the stone-crusted surface with crowbars and pound it to 

 pieces with hammers to jtrovide soil for cultivation. The most 

 elevated island in the whole group in 400 feet high, and is a dune 

 of sand piled up by the wind. This is on Cat island, where some 

 suppose Columbus first landed. 



There are practically no springs or running streams in the 

 Bahamas. The people depend on rain water and wells. As a whole, 

 the Bahamas are poor in soil and products. The seat of government 

 is at New Providence, which was once a famous rendezvous of 

 pirates. Nassau is now a fashionable resort, particularly in winter. 

 During the American Civil war it was the headquarters for blockade 

 runners, to and from Confederate ports. From 1861 to 1865 there 

 were 397 ships entered there after running the blockade, and 688 

 left there to attempt to break through the blockade. Many never 

 returned. < 



As far as can be learned there is only one sawmUl among the 

 Bahamas. It is on Andros island, and saws Cuban pine (Finns 

 heteropfiylla) , the kind that predominates in south Florida. The 

 trees are small and the lumber is nearly all consumed near where 

 it is cut or among the neighboring islands. Yellow pine from the 

 United States competes successfully with it, at the very mill that 

 cuts it. There is a supply of timber, such as it is, for several years, 

 at the present rate of cutting. 



Some mahogany grows in the Bahamas, but the best was cut 

 about eighty years ago. When the mahogany cutters in the Bahamas 

 had stripped those islands, they passed into Florida and so thor- 

 oughly depleted the mahogany there that little has been cut in 

 Florida since. 



The Greater Antilles consist of Cuba, Haiti, Porto Rico, Jamaica, 

 and numerous smaller islands of the same group. The Lesser 

 Antilles stretch in a crescent from Porto Rico to South America, 

 the largest and southernmost island of the group being Trinidad. 

 They belong to the Dutch, British, French, and Danish. 

 West Indian Woods 



Only two West Indian woods are imported into the United States 

 in considerable amounts, mahogany and Spanish cedar; but many 

 others come in small quantities. However, the man who is con- 

 templating the increase of his exports of lumber to the West Indies 

 is not concerned so much with imports from that region into this 

 country, as with the competition which his i»roduct must face when 

 it reaches the markets on those islands. The people there will make 

 use of what is at hand rather than buy imported lumber. For that 

 reason it is proper to take account of some of the woods of the 



