FOREST CONDITIONS IN DELAWARE. 15 



Pine brings $3 and oak $2.50 a ton, green, for mine props, deliv- 

 ered on cars. This amounts to about $12 a cord. The props are ship- 

 ped in long sticks which must be at least 17 feet in length and 8 inches 

 in diameter at the center. 



Spruce pine for charcoal is worth 50 cents to $1 on the stump. It 

 is cheaper to haul charcoal than cordwood, and so where this pine oc- 

 curs a long distance from the market, it is cut for charcoal rather than 

 for cordwood. 



The following are the local prices per thousand board feet for pine 

 boards delivered at the factories, or at railroad shipping points. 



Boards f -inch thick 



Scrap boards, 3 to 6 inches wide .$11 



6 to 9 " " 13 to 14 



9 and over " 15 to 16 



Boards 1 inch thick- 

 Common .... 14 



No. 2 18 



No. 1 (clear heart) 30 



The common and lower grades of pine lumber are used almost en- 

 tirely in local box and crate factories, while the better grades are often 

 shipped. 



Gum boards bring locally about the same price as pine, while tulip 

 poplar brings more. Pine, gum, and mixed framing bring $16 a thou- 

 sand locally at the mills. 



The following were the wholesale selling prices per thousand feet 

 to the retail trade in Philadelphia, on June 1, 1907, for various kinds 

 of lumber which to some extent are produced in Delaware : 



Chestnut, $20 to $50. 



Poplar, $22.50 to $56. 



White oak, quartered, $34 to $72 and up. 



Oak, plain, red and white, $23 to $52. 



N. C. pine, rough, $12 to $45. 



N. C. pine, dressed, $18.25 to $49.75. 



It pays to ship only the very best grades to the city, because of 

 high freight rates. The rate to Philadelphia from Sussex County is 

 from $1.50 to $2 a ton on lumber in single car lots, which amounts to 

 $2.25 to $4 a thousand for pine, and from $3 to $6 a thousand for hard- 

 wood. Only a very small per cent of the lumber manufactured in the 

 State is of a sufficiently high grade to make it more profitable to ship 

 to large city markets than to sell it locally, as the local prices, especially 



