48 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



Eailway construction is quite at a standstill. Last year only 639 

 kilometers of track were laid, the total number of kilometers in the 

 whole country now being 12,920 (8,028 miles), representing a total capi- 

 tal of $429,582,917. 



Shipbuilding never has amounted to much in the Kiver Plate, and 

 the few river craft are of no great significance. Still there are several 

 shipyards where extensive repairing, refitting, and refurnishing are 

 done, and these always seem to have " plenty to do." 



Housebuilding, especially here in Buenos Ayres, during the years 

 from 1886 to 1890, had a great development along with the great activ- 

 ity in real estate. The number of transfers of real estate in 1890 in 

 this city was 9,340, embracing 9,700,971 square meters, for the aggre- 

 gate sum of $80,862,716 paper currency, equal to about $25,000,000 

 gold. For some unexplained reason the annual municipal statistics do 

 not state the number of building permits or buildings erected each 

 year, and hence I am not able to give any figures on the subject ; but 

 a very large proportion of the transfers each year are made with a 

 view to the erection of buildings upon the lots. There has been no 

 census of Buenos Ayres since 1887, and at that time the following were 

 the building statistics of this city : 



Brick houses 24,065 



Wooden houses 2,084 



Mixed houses 7,613 



Public edifices 193 



Houses in course of construction 489 



Total in 1887 34,444 



Assuming that 500 is the average number of houses annually erected, 

 it would appear that the present number of distinct habitations in 

 Buenos Ayres is about 37,500; and as it is claimed that the number of 

 dwellers to a house in this city, including conventillos or constructions 

 for the poor, is 15, it follows that the present population of Buenos 

 Ayres is 562,500. The number claimed by the municipality is 582,000. 



House- build ing, however, as we have seen, is not the only use to 

 which North American and native lumber and woods is applied. A 

 large quantity is consumed in paling and picket fencing ; in the manu- 

 facture of chairs and other furniture, now made here in the styles of 

 France, England, and the United States, but which, owing to the 

 increased duties recently placed upon foreign furniture, it is no longer 

 possible to import without a loss; in the manufacture of dry goods and 

 packing boxes; in the manufacture of barrels, hogsheads, and other 

 coopers' work, though there is still a very large trade in American 

 "shooks;" manufacture of shoe lasts; of all sorts of turners 7 work; 

 of carriages, carts, and wagons; of boats and naval construction and 

 repairs; and for a thousand other objects, for which with the growth 

 of manufactures in this city the multiplied necessities of life call into 

 requisition the different varieties of wood and lumber. 



