86 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



so far as to construct 95 per cent of all floors of these materials, and 

 avoids the use of wood as far as he can, there is still a large and ever- 

 increasing trade in lumber. It is used in architecture, shipbuilding, 

 furniture-making, box-making, coffin making, church decoration, and 

 theater-framing. It is not used in house-framing or bridge construc- 

 tion by reason of storms and white ants; nor in sheds, wharves, plank 

 roads, fences, and railings. 



Building never stops. Chinese houses are not made to last. Not one 

 in a thousand will last thirty years unless constantly repaired. They 

 contain from two to forty rooms each and are usually one story in height. 

 The foundations are cut granite; the walls cheap brick, covered with 

 mortar and kalsomined; the roof is tiled with red tiles; the floor is tiled 

 or bricked; the casings of doors and windows are generally granite; 

 the windows are barred with wooden, iron, or granite bars; the doors 

 are made of planks, with heavy cross pieces; the roof and beams are 

 made of poles; the mantelpiece is brick and mortar; the kitchen, stone; 

 benches,brick ; bathtub, cement or earthenware; and the washboards are 

 stone. When wash tubs are used they are of coarse earthenware. The 

 settees are usually granite slabs or brick piers. The chopping block is 

 of stone. In this way the use of wood in housebuilding is reduced to 

 a minimum. One two- story American frame house would supply enough 

 wood for 200 Chinese houses. 



The reason of this odd state of affairs lies first in the prevalence of 

 fierce storms, especially typhoons, which would shatter a wooden edi- 

 fice in a few minutes; and, secondly, in the devastating power of white 

 ants and other insects. There is no remedy for these pests. When 

 they get into a roof beam the beam must come down and a new one be 

 used in its place, otherwise the roof may come down any moment and 

 crush the entire household. 



In shipbuilding the Chinese prefer their own woods and their own 

 system to ours. Of a hundred foreign ships, condemned and sold in 

 this district, only one was ever utilized by the natives for maritime 

 purposes. 



There may be a good field in this district for tea wood; that is, the 

 thin sawn boards with which they make tea boxes. At least 1,000,000 

 boxes are made here every year. They are made by hand and marketed 

 in shocks like shingles. A modification of the shingle machine would 

 turn these out at a much lower cost and produce a far better article. 

 If the woods would serve the purpose, I doubt not but that the 

 California redwood and the Oregon pine might be worked up into tea 

 wood and form a profitable commodity. If freights and insurance 

 added to prime cost destroyed the apparent profit, there might still be 

 a chance here for the ingenious shingle machines of the Pacific coast. 



WILLIAM E. S. FALES. 



Vice- Consul in charge. 



AMOY, April 12, 1894. 





