REPORT OF THB STATISTICIAN. 



273 



even importiug the commonest furniture from the United States or 

 Europe. Consul E. L. Baker gives the following statement of value of 

 imports of wood and its products : 



Of this amount the United States furnished as follows 



Kinds. 



Lumber for building 



Lumber for cabiuotrwork. 



Lumber for veneering 



Lumber, planed 



other timber 



Ifumiture 



1870. 



, 482, 542 

 15, 945 



21, 160 

 126, 900 



1871. 



$906, 275 

 19, 671 



C,941 

 71, 113 



1872. 



$1, 518, 054 

 6,437 



28, 468 

 125,027 



1874. 



12,769,059 ^,907,175 



97, 311 



43, 822 

 274, 299 



23, 901 

 1,858 

 15, 075 

 26, 976 

 214, 418 



1875. 



$1, 092. 616 



30, 031 



3,714 



22, 227 



41,110 



126, 872 



The native woods most used are Quebracho Colorado, very hard and 

 brittle, the word meaning break-ax, worth in Eosario $120 per 1,000 

 feet ; Quebracho bianco, less hard, used for cart-wheels and boat-build- 

 ing; Algarroba, softer and lighter, worth $100; cedars from the mount- 

 ain districts, $125. Foreign lumber has supplanted the use of native 

 woods for building purposes as far as "Cordova, after paying $22 ocean 

 freight, $6 import duty, and $10 railway freight, besides profits of im- 

 porter. The extension of railways into the interior is cheapening trans- 

 portation, and may ultimately reduce the price of lumber. There are no 

 portable saw-mills for cutting lumber. The exportation of lumber should 

 be a profitable business. 



Lumber is beginning to be a prosperous industry among the forests of 

 the Grand Chaco, bordering on the Parana Eiver, and cargoes have been 

 sent to English and French ports. 



The provinces of Tucuman, Salta, Jujuy, and Coirientes are well 

 adapted to the production of sugar, cotton, rice, and tobacco, which are 

 already the bases of flourishing industries, and the olive is suited to all 

 except the more southern locations. The climate of Tucuman is said to 

 be similar to that of Louisiana, and cane will reproduce itself for fifteen 

 or twenty years after planting. There are now forty-two sugar estab- 

 lishments in that province, with an aggregate capital of upward of 

 $250,000. It is 1,000 miles in the interior, and is now in railroad com- 

 munication with Buenos Ayres. Experiments in coffee- growing there 

 are also very promising. 



Consul Baker reports a popular estimate of 20 bushels as the average 

 yield of wheat. Some, Europeans are credited with obtaining 25 to 27 

 bushels. The yield of oats is said to be good, but maize and potatoes 

 are inferior to the growth of the United States. Alfalfa is the great 

 hay-producer, affording three' or four crops each season. Dried and 

 baled, the surplus finds a ready market in Brazilian ports. It sells for 

 about $15 per ton. 



Immigration is fostered, and is very active of late, so that Buenos 

 Ayres is becoming rather cosmopolitan than Argentine. It is almost 

 18 a 



