AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 31 



not know how to assort, care little how they season the lumber, and it 

 is almost impossible to get from them good dimensions. The one thing 

 to be feared by us is the reinstatement of exorbitant freight rates. 



ALEXANDER L. POLLOCK, 



Consul. 

 SAN SAL, V^ADOR, March 5, 1894. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 

 ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



NATIVE WOODS. 



In regard to the native woods of the Argentine Eepublic, I have 

 to state that I have already furnished the Department with a full and 

 detailed report. It was published in Yol. x, No. 34, p. 849, of Consular 

 Eeports. It not only gives the distribution of the forests of the 

 country from Tierra del Fuego northward to the region of the tropics 

 (latitude 20 S., longitude 58 W.), but it describes the peculiarities 

 and uses of the various woods, including the belts on the eastern 

 slopes of the Andes, the subtropical trees of Salta and Gran, and the 

 immense timber resources of the Gran Chaco, Misiones, and the 

 Argentine Mesopotamia, together with the estimate of the future 

 lumber trade of the Argentine Kepublic. The statements and descrip- 

 tions of trees in that report are as applicable and apposite to-day 

 as when they were written, and they include the specific gravity 

 of the most important trees; so that, instead of rewriting the facts of 

 that report, I suggest that it be made a supplementary report hereto,* 

 containing matters of considerable interest to those who are now 



iking information on these subjects. 



The number of species of trees in the Argentine Eepublic is stated 

 exceed 500, though of course many of these are mere shrubs or 

 irborets. Of the more important woods, over 100 species were exhib- 

 ited at the recent Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and these 



:hibits, being sections or blocks sawed from the trunks, and in most 

 >es polished, have been presented to the Philadelphia Industrial 



Ixhibition, where they can now be seen in all their marvelous beauty; 



id I presume the catalogue which accompanies them includes full 

 lescriptions. 



Of those native woods wnich have, up to the present time, been more 



merally utilized either for constructions or for cabinet work or indus- 



:ial purposes, the following are the most important : 



Algarrobo. The zone of this useful tree is very extensive, since it 



ibraces the following provinces and territories : Corrientes, Santa F6, 



*The report referred to will be found immediately following this report. 



